GENERAL  VON  MOLTKE 


tHUorfVB  Best  f&isstrmts 


GERMANY 

FROM  THE  EARLIEST  PERIOD 

BY 

WOLFGANG   MENZEL 


TRANSLATED  FROM  THE  FOURTH  GERMAN  EDITION 

BY  MRS.  GEORGE  HORROCKS 

WITH  A  SUPPLEMENTARY  CHAPTER  OF  RECENT  EVENTS 

BY  EDGAR  SALTUS 


IN    FOUR    VOLUMES 

VOLUME  THREE 


NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 
THE  CO-OPERATIVE  PUBLICATION  SOCIETY 


HISTORY  OF  GERMANY 

VOLUME  THREE 


THE    HISTORY    OF    GERMANY 


PART    XVI  I 

WAR    OF    LIBERATION    IN    THE    NETHERLANDS 


CXCVIII.   Preponderance   of  the   Spaniards   and 
Jesuits — Courtly  Vices 

THE  false  peace  concluded  at  Augsburg  was  immedi- 
ately followed  by  Charles  V.'s  abdication  of  his  nu- 
merous crowns.  He  would  willingly  have  resigned 
that  of  the  empire  to  his  son  Philip,  had  not  the  Spanish 
education  of  that  prince,  his  gloomy  and  bigoted  character, 
inspired  the  Germans  with  an  aversion  as  unconquerable  as 
that  with  which  he  beheld  them.  Ferdinand  had,  moreover, 
gained  the  favor  of  the  German  princes.  Charles,  neverthe- 
less, influenced  by  affection  toward  his  son,  bestowed  upon 
him  one  of  the  finest  of  the  German  provinces,  the  Nether- 
lands, besides  Spain,  Milan,  Naples,  and  the  West  Indies 
(America).  Ferdinand  received  the  rest  of  the  German 
hereditary  possessions  of  his  house,  besides  Bohemia  and 
Hungary.  The  aged  emperor,  after  thus  dividing  his  do- 
minions, went  to  Spain  and  entered  the  Hieronymite  mon- 
astery of  Justus,  where  he  lived  for  two  years,  amusing 
himself,  among  other  things,  with  an  attempt  to  make  a 
number  of  clocks  keep  exact  time;  on  failing,  he  observed, 
"Watches  are  like  men."  His  whim  for  solemnizing  his 
own  funeral  service  proved  fatal;  the  dampness  of  the  coffin 
in  which  he  lay  during  the  ceremony  brought  on  a  cold, 
which  terminated  a  few  days  afterward  in  death  (1558). 
Charles,  although  dexterous  in  the  conduct  of  petty  intrigues, 

(925) 


926  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

was  entirely  devoid  of  depth  of  intellect,  and  ever  misunder- 
stood his  age;  magnanimous  in  some  few  instances,  he  was 
unendowed  with  the  greatness  of  character  that  had  empow- 
ered Charlemagne  to  govern  and  to  guide  his  times.  Pos- 
sessed of  far  greater  power  than  that  magnificent  emperor, 
the  half  of  the  globe  his  by  inheritance,  he  might,  during  the 
thirty  years  of  his  reign,  have  molded  the  great  Reformation 
to  his  will;  notwithstanding  which,  he  left  at  his  death  both 
the  church  and  state  in  far  more  wretched  disorder  than  at 
his  accession  to  the  throne  of  Germany.  Frederick  III.  was 
too  dull  of  intellect  to  rule  a  world;  Charles  V.  was  too  cun- 
ning. He  overlooked  great  and  natural  advantages,  and 
buried  himself  in  petty  intrigue.  Luther  remarked  of  him 
during  his  youth,  "He  will  never  succeed,  for  he  has  openly 
rejected  truth,  and  Germany  will  be  implicated  in  his  want 
of  success."  Time  proved  the  truth  of  this  opinion.  The 
insufficiency  of  the  Reformation  was  mainly  due  to  this 
emperor. 

Ferdinand  I.,  opposed  in  his  hereditary  provinces  by  a 
predominating  Protestant  party,  which  he  was  compelled  to 
tolerate,  was  politically  overbalanced  by  his  nephew,  Philip 
II.,  in  Spain  and  Italy,  where  Catholicism  flourished.  The 
preponderance  of  the  Spanish  over  the  Austrian  branch  of 
the  house  of  Habsburg  exercised  the  most  pernicious  influ- 
ence on  the  whole  of  Germany,  by  securing  to  the  Catholics 
a  support  which  rendered  reconciliation  impossible,  to  the 
Spaniards  and  Italians  admittance  into  Germany,  and  by 
falsifying  the   German   language,  dress,  and  manners. 

The  religious  disputes  and  petty  egotism  of  the  several 
Estates  of  the  empire  had  utterly  stifled  every  sentiment  of 
patriotism,  and  not  a  dissentient  voice  was  raised  against 
the  will  of  Charles  V.,  which  bestowed  the  whole  of  the 
Netherlands,  one  of  the  finest  of  the  provinces  of  Germany, 
upon  Spain,  the  division  and  consequent  weakening  of  the 
powerful  house  of  Habsburg  being  regarded  by  the  princes 
with  delight. 

At  the  same  time  that  the  power  of  the  Protestant  party 


WAR    OF   LIBERATION    IN   NETHERLANDS  927 

was  shaken  by  the  peace  of  Augsburg,  Cardinal  Caraffa 
mounted  the  pontifical  throne  as  Paul  IV.,  the  first  pope 
who,  following  the  plan  of  the  Jesuits,  abandoned  the  sys- 
tem of  defence  for  that  of  attack.  The  Reformation  no 
sooner  ceased  to  progress  than  a  preventive  movement  be- 
gan. The  pontiffs,  up  to  this  period,  were  imitators  of  Leo 
X.,  had  surrounded  themselves  with  luxury  and  pomp,  had 
been,  personally,  far  from  bigoted  in  their  opinions,  and  had 
opposed  the  Reformation  merely  from  policy,  neither  from 
conviction  nor  fanaticism.  But  the  Jesuits  acted,  while  the 
popes  negotiated;  and  this  new  order  of  ecclesiastics,  at  first 
merely  a  papal  tool  in  the  council  of  Trent,  ere  long  became 
the  pontiff's  master.  An -extraordinary  but  extremely  natu- 
ral medley  existed  in  the  system  and  the  members  of  this 
society  of  Jesus.  The  most  fervent  attachment  to  the  an- 
cient faith,  mysticism,  ascetic  extravagance,  the  courage  of 
the  martyr,  nay,  desire  for  martyrdom,  reappeared  in  their 
former  strength  the  moment  the  church  was  threatened;  the 
passions,  formerly  inspiring  the  crusader,  burst  forth  afresh 
to  oppose,  not,  as  in  olden  times,  the  sensual  pagan  and 
Mahometan,  but  the  stern  morality  and  well-founded  com- 
plaints of  the  nations  of  Germany,  to  which  a  deaf  ear  was 
turned;  and  religious  zeal,  originally  pure,  but  now  misled 
by  a  foul  policy,  indifferent  alike  to  the  price  and  to  the 
means  by  which  it  gained  its  aim,  sought  to  undermine 
the  Reformation.  Among  the  Jesuits  there  were  saints  equal- 
ling in  faith  the  martyrs  of  old;  poets  overflowing  with  phi- 
lanthropy; bold  and  unflinching  despots;  smooth-tongued 
divines,  versed  in  the  art  of  lying.  The  necessity  for  ac- 
tion, in  opposing  the  Reformation,  naturally  called  forth  the 
energies  of  the  more  arbitrary  and  systematic  members  of 
the  order,  and  threw  the  dreamy  enthusiasts  in  the  shade. 
Nationality  was  also  another  ruling  motive.  Was  the  au- 
thority of  the  foreigner,  so  long  exercised  over  the  German, 
to  be  relinquished  without  a  struggle?  This  nationality, 
moreover,  furnished  an  excuse  for  immoral  inclinations  and 
practices,  for  all  that  was  unworthy  of  the  Master  they  nom- 


928  THE    HISTORY    OF    GERMANY 

inally  served.  The  attempts  for  reconciliation  made  by  both 
parties  in  the  church  no  sooner  failed,  and  the  moderate 
Catholic  party  in  favor  of  peace  and  of  a  certain  degree  of 
reform  lost  sight  of  its  original  views,  than  the  whole  sov- 
ereignty of  the  Catholic  world  was  usurped  by  this  order. 
The  pope  was  compelled  to  throw  himself  into  its  arms,  and 
Paul  IV.,  putting  an  end  to  the  system  pursued  by  his  pre- 
decessors, renounced  luxury  and  license,  publicly  cast  off 
his  nephews,  and  zealously  devoted  himself  to  the  Catho- 
lic cause.  At  the  same  time  he  was,  notwithstanding  the 
similarity  in  their  religious  opinions,  at  war  with  Philip  of 
Spain,  being  unable,  like  his  predecessors,  to  tolerate  the 
temporal  supremacy  of  the  Spaniard  in  Naples.  Rome,  be- 
sieged by  the  duke  of  Alba,  was  defended  by  German  Prot- 
estants, and  the  pope  was  reduced  to  the  necessity  of  seeking 
aid  from  the  Turk  and  the  French.  Peace  was  concluded 
in  1557.  Philip  afterward  treated  the  pope  with  extreme 
reverence,  and  confederated  with  him  for  the  restoration  of 
the  church. 

The  settlement  of  the  Jesuits  throughout  the  whole  of 
Catholic  Germany  was  the  first  result  of  this  combination. 
William,  duke  of  Bavaria,  granted  to  them  the  university 
of  Ingolstadt,  where  Canisius  of  Nimwegen,  the  Spaniard, 
Salmeron,  and  the  Savoyard,  Le  Jay,  were  the  first  Jesuiti- 
cal professors.  Canisius  drew  up  a  catechism  strictly  Catho- 
lic, the  form  of  belief  for  the  whole  of  Bavaria,  on  which, 
in  1561,  all  the  servants  of  the  state  were  compelled  to 
swear,  and  to  which,  at  length,  every  Bavarian  subject  was 
forced,  under  pain  of  banishment,  to  subscribe.  This  exam- 
ple induced  the  emperor  Ferdinand  to  invite  Canisius  into 
Austria,  where  Lutheranism  had  become  so  general  that  by 
far  the  greater  number  of  the  churches  were  either  in  the 
hands  of  the  Protestants  or  closed,  and  for  twenty  years  not 
a  single  Catholic  priest  had  taken  orders  at  the  university  of 
Vienna.  Canisius  was  at  first  less  successful  in  Austria  than 
he  had  been  in  Bavaria,  but  nevertheless  effected  so  much 
that  even  his  opponents  declared  that  without  him  the  whole 


WAR    OF   LIBERATION  IN   NETHERLANDS  929 

of  Southern  Germany  would  have  ceased  to  be  Catholic.1 
Cardinal  Otto,  bishop  of  Augsburg,  a  Truchsess  von  Wald- 
burg,  aided  by  Bavaria,  compelled  his  diocesans  to  recant, 
and  founded  a  Jesuitical  university  at  Dillingen.  In  Cologne 
and  Treves  the  Jesuits  simultaneously  suppressed  the  Ref- 
ormation and  civil  liberty.  Coblentz  was  deprived  of  all  her 
ancient  privileges  in  1561,  and  Treves  in  1580. 

Ferdinand  I.  was  in  a  difficult  position.  Paul  IV.  re- 
fused to  acknowledge  him  on  account  of  the  peace  concluded 
between  him  and  the  Protestants,  whom  he  was  unable  to 
oppose,  and  whose  tenets  he  refused  to  embrace,  notwith- 
standing the  expressed  wish  of  the  majority  of  his  subjects. 
Like  his  brother,  he  intrigued  and  diplomatized  until  his 
Jesuitical  confessor,  Bobadilla,  and  the  new  pope,  Pius  IV., 
again  placed  him  on  good  terms  with  Rome  in  1559.  He 
also  found  a  mediator  in  Barlo  Borromeo,  archbishop  of 
MiiaD,  who  had  gained  a  high  reputation  for  sanctity  by  his 
fearless  and  philanthropic  behavior  during  a  pestilence,  and 
who  was,  moreover,  a  zealous  upholder  of  the  external  pomp 
of  the  church  and  of  public  devotion. 

Augustus,  elector  of  Saxony,  the  brother  of  Maurice, 
alarmed  at  the  fresh  alliance  between  the  emperor  and  the 
pope,  convoked  a  meeting  of  the  Protestant  leaders  at  Naum- 
burg.  His  fears  were,  however,  allayed  by  the  peaceful 
proposals  of  the  emperor  in  1561,  and,  in  point  of  fact, 
the  fitting  moment  for  another  attempt  at  reconciliation  had 
arrived.  The  great  leaders  of  the  Reformation  were  dead, 
the  zeal  of  their  successors  had  cooled  or  they  were  at  vari- 
ance with  one  another.  Disgust  had  driven  several  theolo- 
gians back  to  the  bosom  of  the  Roman  Church.  The  em- 
peror, and  even  Albert  of  Bavaria,  William's  successor,  were 
willing  to  concede  marriage  to  the  priests,  the  sacrament 
under  both  forms  to  the  people,  the  use  of  the  German 
tongue  in  the  church  service,  and  several  other  points,  for 
the  sake  of  terminating  the  schism  in  the  church;  and  even 


1  He  was  in  consequence  mockingly  termed  "canis  Austriacus." 


930  THE   HISTORY    OF    GERMANY 

the  pope,  through  his  talented  nuncio,  Commendone,  made 
several  extremely  touching  representations  to  the  assembly 
at  Naumburg.  All  was  vain.  Commendone  was  treated 
with  great  indignity  by  the  assembled  Protestants.  His 
subsequent  attempt  to  gain  the  princes  over  one  by  one  also 
failed,  Brandenburg  alone  giving  him  a  favorable  reception. 
The  assembly  at  Naumburg  was,  nevertheless,  extremely 
peaceful  in  comparison  with  the  convocation  held  simultane- 
ously at  Luneburg,  where  the  strictest  Lutherans,  the  pope's 
most  irreconcilable  foes,  chiefly  preachers  from  the  Hanse 
towns,  had  assembled.  John  Frederick,  duke  of  Weimar, 
had  also  separated  himself  from  the  meeting  at  Naumburg, 
through  hatred  of  the  electoral  house. 

The  reconciliation  so  ardently  hoped  for  by  the  moderate 
party  on  both  sides  was  no  longer  possible.  The  schism  had 
been  too  much  widened  ever  again  to  close.  The  Protes- 
tants, instead  of  awaiting  a  general  discussion  of  ecclesias- 
tical matters  by  a  council,  had,  on  their  own  responsibility, 
founded  a  new  church  with  new  ceremonies  and  tenets.  The 
Catholics  had,  on  their  side,  placed  the  council  not  over  the 
pope,  but  the  pope  over  the  council,  in  order  to  give  them- 
selves a  head  and  greater  unity,  and  this  council,  led  by  the 
Jesuits,  had  already  passed  several  resolutions  to  which 
the  Protestants  could  not  accede.  Neither  party  would 
retract  lest  more  might  be  lost,  and  each  viewed  the  other 
with  the  deepest  distrust.  Leonhard  Haller,  bishop  of  Eich- 
stadt,  said  in  the  council,  "It  is  dangerous  to  refuse  the  de- 
mands of  the  Protestants,  but  much  more  so  to  grant  them." 
Both  parties  shared  this  opinion,  and  resolved  to  maintain 
the  schism.  A  last  attempt  to  save  the  unity  of  the  German 
church,  in  the  event  of  its  separation  from  that  of  Rome, 
was  made  by  Ferdinand,  who  convoked  the  spiritual  elec- 
toral princes,  the  archbishops  and  bishops,  for  that  purpose  to 
Vienna,  but  the  consideration  with  which  he  was  compelled 
to  treat  the  pope  rendered  his  efforts  weak  and  ineffectual; 
those  made  by  Albert  of  Bavaria,  independently  of  the  Prot- 
estants, in  the  council,  for  the  abolition  or  restriction  of  the 


WAR    OF    LIBERATION    IN    NETHERLANDS  931 

most  glaring  abuses  in  the  church,  were  more  successful, 
although  the  whole  of  his  demands  were  not  conceded.  The 
council  clearly  perceived  the  necessity  of  raising  the  fallen 
credit  of  the  clergy  by  the  revival  of  morality.  A  number 
of  abuses  in  this  respect,  more  particularly  the  sale  of  in- 
dulgences, were  abolished;  the  local  authority  of  the  bishops 
was  restored,  and  the  arbitrary  power  of  the  legates  re- 
stricted; a  catechism  for  the  instruction  of  the  Catholics  was 
adopted  in  imitation  of  that  published  by  the  Lutherans,  and, 
by  the  foundation  of  the  Order  of  Jesus,  talent  and  learning 
were  once  more  to  be  spread  an  mg  the  monastic  orders. 
But  the  council  also  drew  the  bonds  of  ancient  dogmatism 
closer  than  ever,  by  its  confirmation  of  the  supremacy  of 
the  pope  and  of  his  infallibility  in  all  ecclesiastical  matters. 
•'Cursed  be  all  heretics!"  exclaimed  the  cardinal  of  Lorraine 
at  the  conclusion  of  the  council,  which  re-echoed  his  words 
with  thunders  of  applause,  in  1563.  Pius  IV.,  who  closed 
the  council,  and,  by  his  reconciliation  with  the  emperor  and 
with  Spain,  had  weakened  the  opposition  of  the  hierarchy 
and  strengthened  that  of  the  Protestants,  was  succeeded  by 
Pius  V.,  a  blind  zealot,  who  castigated  himself,  and,  like 
Philip  in  Spain,  tracked  the  heretics  in  the  State  of  the 
Church  by  means  of  the  Inquisition,  and  condemned  num- 
bers to  the  stake. 

The  Protestants,  blind  to  the  unity  and  strength  resulting 
from  the  policy  of  the  Catholics,  weakened  themselves  more 
and  more  by  division.  The  Reformed  Swiss  were  almost 
more  inimical  to  the  Lutherans  than  the  Catholics  were,  and 
the  general  mania  for  disputation  and  theological  obstinacy 
produced  divisions  among  the  Reformers  themselves.  When, 
in  1562,  Bullmger  set  up  the  Helvetic  Confession,  to  which 
the  Pfalz  also  assented,  in  Zurich,  Basel  refused  and  main- 
tained a  particular  Confession.  A  university,  intended  by 
Ferdinand  I.  as  a  bulwark  against  the  Reformation,  was 
founded   by  him  at   Besancon,  then  an  imperial  city,  1564. 

Ferdinand  expired  in  1564,  and  was  succeeded  on  the 
imperial  throne  by  his  son,  Maximilian  II.,  who  had  gained 


932  THE    HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

great  popularity  throughout  Germany  by  his  inclination  to 
favor  the  Lutherans;  but,  unstable  in  character,  he  com- 
mitted the  fault  of  granting  religious  liberty  to  his  subjects 
without  embracing  Lutheranism  himself,  and  consequently 
exposed  them  to  the  most  fearful  persecution  under  his  suc- 
cessor. No  one  ever  more  convincingly  proved  how  much 
more  half  friendship  is  to  be  dreaded  than  utter  enmity. 

The  empire  was,  at  this  period,  externally  at  peace. 
France,  embroiled  by  the  Catholics  and  Huguenots,  was 
governed  by  a  female  monster,  the  widow  of  Henry  II.,  the 
Italian,  Catherine  de  Medicis,  who,  sunk  in  profligacy,  and 
the  zealous  champion  of  the  ancient  church,  reigned  in  the 
name  of  her  sons,  Francis  II.  and  Charles  IX.  The  Hugue- 
nots turned  for  relief  to  Germany.  In  1562,  six  thousand 
Hessians,  and,  in  1567,  the  Pfalzgraf,  John  Casimir,  with 
seventeen  thousand  men,  marched  to  their  aid.  The  queen 
was,  on  her  side,  assisted  by  the  Swiss  Catholics,  and,  to  his 
eternal  disgrace,  by  John  William,  duke  of  Weimar,  who 
sent  a  re-enforcement  of  five  thousand  men.  John  Casimir 
reaped  still  deeper  shame  by  his  acceptation  of  a  royal  bribe, 
and  his  consequent  desertion  of  the  Huguenots. 

The  Turks  also  left  the  empire  undisturbed.  They  were 
opposed  in  Hungary  by  an  imperial  army  under  Castaldo, 
which,  instead  of  defending,  laid  the  country  waste.  The 
monk,  George  Mertenhausen  (Martinuzzi),  was  more  influen- 
tial by  his  intrigues.  On  the  death  of  Zapolya,  to  whom  he 
had  acted  both  as  temporal  and  spiritual  adviser,  he  found 
himself  at  the  head  of  affairs  in  Hungary,  and  proposed  a 
marriage,  which  never  took  place,  between  Zapolya's  son, 
John  Sigismund,  and  one  of  Ferdinand's  daughters.  His 
first  condition  was  the  emancipation  of  the  peasantry  by  the 
emperor,  on  the  grounds  that  "the  Turks  offered  liberty  to 
the  Hungarian  serfs,  and  thereby  induced  numbers  to  apos- 
tatize, and,  in  this  apostacy  from  Christianity,  those  alone 
who  tyrannized  over  the  peasantry  were  to  blame."  Ferdi- 
nand naturally  refused  to  listen  to  these  remonstrances,  and 
George  was  shortly  afterward  accused  of  a  treacherous  corre- 


WAR    OF   LIBERATION   IN   NETHERLANDS  933 

spondence  with  the  Turks,  and  was  murdered  by  Castaldo's 
braves.  The  pope,  who  had  shortly  before  presented  him,  at 
Ferdinand's  request,  with  a  cardinal's  hat,  merely  observed 
on  this  occasion,  "He  ought  either  to  have  been  less  strongly 
recommended  or  not  to  have  been  assassinated."  The  Hun- 
garians, roused  to  desperation  by  the  tyranny  of  Castaldo, 
and  by  the  devastation  committed  by  his  soldiery,  at  length 
attacked  him,  killed  the  greater  part  of  his  men,  and  de- 
clared in  favor  of  John  Sigismund  Zapolya.  This  demon- 
stration was  rendered  still  more  effective  by  an  invasion  of 
Carniola  by  the  Turks  in  1559.  Maximilian  II.,  on  his 
accession  to  the  throne,  purchased  peace  by  an  annual  trib- 
ute of  300,000  guilders,  and  by  the  recognition  of  John  Sigis- 
mund as  prince  of  Transylvania.  The  sultan  infringed  the 
treaty;  the  peace  of  Germany,  nevertheless,  remained  undis- 
turbed, the  gray- headed  sultan  expiring  before  the  walls  of 
Sigeth,  which  were  gallantly  defended,  to  the  immortal  honor 
of  his  nation,  by  the  Hungarian,  Nicolas  Zriny.  The  Turks 
withdrew,  and  were  kept  in  check  by  Lazarus  Schwendi,  an 
old  and  experienced  general  of  the  time  of  Charles  V. 

Maximilian,  insensible  to  the  advantages  presented  by 
the  peaceful  state  of  the  empire,  and  incapable  of  guiding 
events,  merely  ventured  upon  a  few  timid  steps  that  might 
easily  be  retraced.  After  having,  in  1565,  invited  Pius  IV. 
to  abrogate  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy,  against  which  he  pro- 
tested, his  next  step  should  have  been  the  prosecution  of  the 
Reformation  independent  of  the  pope;  instead  of  which,  un- 
conscious of  the  deadly  suspicion  and  of  the  dark  assassin 
that  dogged  his  every  step,  he  used  his  utmost  efforts  to  pre- 
serve amicable  relations  with  him,  while,  on  the  other  hand, 
he  granted  the  free  exercise  of  their  religion  to  the  Aus- 
trian nobility,  and  to  the  cities  of  Linz,  Steyer,  Euns,  Wels, 
Freistadt,  Gmunden,  and  Vcecklabruck,  and  tolerated  the 
introduction  of  the  new  Protestant  church  into  Austria  by 
Chytrseus  von  Rostock  in  1568.  He  afterward  allowed 
the  Bible  to  be  translated  for  the  use  of  the  Slavonians 
in  Carniola,  Carinthia,   and  Styria,   and   protected,  even  in 


934  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

Vienna,  the  Protestants  as  well  as  the  Jesuits,  on  one  occa- 
sion bestowing  a  box  on  the  ear  on  his  son,  afterward  the 
emperor  Rudolf  II.,  for  having  attacked  a  Protestant  church 
at  the  instigation  of  the  Jesuits.  Half  measures  of  this  de- 
scription were  exactly  calculated  to  excite  the  revenge  of  the 
young  emperor  on  the  decease  of  his  father.  Had  Maximil- 
ian embraced  the  Lutheran  faith,  or,  at  all  events,  extended 
freedom  in  religious  matters  indifferently  to  every  class,  had 
he  sanctioned  it  by  a  solemn  decree,  and  placed  it  under  the 
guarantee  of  the  rest  of  Protestant  Germany,  his  concessions 
would  have  met  with  a  blessed  result  and  have  defied  the 
sovereign's  caprice,  instead  of  acting,  as  they  eventually  did, 
as  a  curse  upon  those  among  his  subjects,  who,  under  his 
protection,  demonstrated  their  real  opinions,  and  were,  con- 
sequently, marked  as  victims  by  his  fanatical  successor.  He 
also  tolerated  the  grossest  papacy  in  his  own  family.  His 
consort,  Maria,  the  daughter  of  Charles  V.,  entirely  coin- 
cided with  the  opinions  of  her  brother  Philip,  and  instilled 
them  into  the  mind  of  her  son.  His  brothers,  Ferdinand 
and  Charles,  were  zealous  disciples  of  the  Jesuits.  Maximil- 
ian also  gave  his  daughters  in  marriage  to  the  most  blood- 
thirsty persecutors  of  the  heretics  in  Europe,  Anna  to  Philip 
II.  of  Spain,  Elisabeth  to  Charles  IX.  of  France,  who,  on 
St.  Bartholomew's  night,  aided  with  his  own  hand  in  the 
assassination  of  the  Huguenots,  who  had  been  treacherously 
invited  by  him  to  Paris.  This  event  filled  Maximilian  with 
horror;  he,  nevertheless,  neglected  to  guard  his  wretched 
subjects  from  the  far  worse  fate  that  awaited  them  during 
the  thirty  years'  war.  For  the  sake  of  treating  each  party 
with  equal  toleration,  he  allowed  the  Jesuits,  during  a  period 
when  hatred  was  rife  in  every  heart,  full  liberty  of  action, 
and  thus  encouraged  a  sect,  which,  solely  studious  of  evil, 
and  animated  by  the  most  implacable  revenge,  shortly  repaid 
his  toleration  with  poison. 

A  female  member  of  the  imperial  family  was  also  an  ob- 
ject of  the  hatred  of  the  Jesuits.  During  the  reign  of  Ferdi- 
nand 1. ,  his  son,  Ferdinand  of  the  Tyrol,  became  enamored 


WAR    OF    LIBERATION    IN    NETHERLANDS  935 

of  the  daughter  of  an  Augsburg  citizen,  Philippina  Welser, 
the  most  beautiful  maiden  of  her  time,  whom  he  secretly 
married.  Philippina  went  to  the  imperial  court,  and,  throw- 
ing herself  under  a  feigned  name  at  the  emperor's  feet,  peti- 
tioned him  to  guard  her  from  the  danger  with  which  she  was 
threatened  in  case  her  marriage  was  discovered  by  an  intol- 
erant father-in-law.  Ferdinand,  moved  by  her  beauty,  raised 
her  and  promised  to  plead  in  her  favor.  Upon  this  Philippina 
discovered  the  truth,  and  the  emperor,  touched  to  the  heart, 
forgave  his  son.  The  pope  confirmed  the  marriage,  and  the 
happy  pair  spent  a  life  of  delight  at  the  castle  of  Ambras,  in 
the  Tyrol,  not  far  from  Innsbruck,  until  it  was  poisoned  by 
the  venom  instilled  by  the  Jesuits.  Their  children  were 
created  Margraves  of  Burgau.  The  family  became  extinct 
in  1618. 

The  Protestants  also  allowed  the  opportunity  offered  to 
them  by  the  emperor  to  pass  unheeded,  and,  although  they 
received  a  great  accession  in  number,  sank,  from  want  of 
unity,  in  real  power  and  influence.  The  rest  of  the  German 
princes,  Charles  and  Ernest  of  Baden,  and  Julius  of  Bruns- 
wick-Wolfenbuttel,  the  son  of  Henry  the  Wild,  embraced 
Lutheranism.  Austria,  Bavaria,  Lorraine,  and  Juliers  re- 
mained Catholic.  The  Reformers  were  devoid  of  union  and 
energy,  and  oppressed  by  a  sense  of  having  abused  and  des- 
ecrated, instead  of  having  rigidly  prosecuted,  the  Reforma- 
tion. Was  their  present  condition  the  fitting  result  of  a 
religious  emancipation,  or  worthy  of  the  sacred  blood  that 
had  been  shed  in  the  cause  ?  Instead  of  one  pope,  the  Prot- 
estants were  oppressed  by  a  number,  each  of  the  princes  as- 
cribing that  authority  to  himself;  and  instead  of  the  Jesuits 
they  had  court  chaplains  and  superintendents-general,  who, 
their  equals  in  venom,  despised  no  means,  however  base,  by 
which  their  aim  might  be  attained.  A  new  species  of  bar- 
barism had  found  admittance  into  the  Protestant  courts  and 
universities.  The  Lutheran  chaplains  shared  their  influence 
over  the  princes  with  mistresses,  boon  companions,  astrolo- 
gers, alchemists,  and  Jews.     The  Protestant  princes,  ren- 


936  THE    HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

dered,  by  the  treaty  of  Augsburg,    unlimited  dictators  in 
matters  of  faith  within  their  territories,  had  lost  all  sense 
of  shame.     Philip  of  Hesse  married  two  wives.     Branden- 
burg and  pious  Saxony  yielded  to  temptation.     Surrounded 
by  coarse  grooms,  equerries,  court  fools  of  obscene  wit,  and 
misshapen  dwarfs,  the  princes  emulated  each  other  in  drunk- 
enness, an  amusement  that  entirely  replaced  the  noble  and 
gallant  tournament  of  earlier  times.     Almost  every  German 
court  was  addicted  to  this  bestial  vice.     Among  others,  the 
ancient  house  of  Piast  in  Silesia  was  utterly  ruined  by  it. 
Even  Louis  of  Wurtemberg,  whose  virtues  rendered  him  the 
darling  of  his  people,  was  continually  in  a  state  of  drunken- 
ness.    This  vice  and  that  of  swearing  even  became  a  subject 
of  discussion   in  the  diet  of  the  empire  in   1577,  when  it 
was  decreed,  "That  all  electoral  princes,  nobles,  and  Estates 
should  avoid  intemperate  drinking  as  an  example  to  their 
subjects."     The  chase  was  also  followed  to  excess.     The 
game  was  strictly  preserved,  and,  during  the  hunt,  the  serfs 
were  compelled  to  aid  in  demolishing  their  own  cornfields. 
The  Jews  and  alchemists,  whom  it  became  the  fashion  to 
have  at  court,  were  by  no  means  a  slight  evil,  all  of  them  re- 
quiring gold.     Astrology  would  have  been  a  harmless  amuse- 
ment had  not  its  professors  taken  advantage  of  the  ignorance 
and  superstition  of  the  times.     False  representations  of  the 
secret  powers  of  nature  and  of  the  devil  led  to  the  belief  in 
witchcraft  and  to  the   bloody   persecution  of  its  supposed 
agents.     Luther's  belief  in  the  agency  of  the  devil  had  nat- 
urally filled  the  minds  of  his  followers  with  superstitious 
fears.     Julius,  duke  of  Brunswick,  embraced  the  Reforma- 
tion, lived  m  harmony  with  his  provincial  Estates,  founded 
the   university   of   Helmstsedt,  and,   during   a    long   peace, 
raised  his  country  to  a  high  degree  of  prosperity,  but  had 
such   an   irresistible   mania   for   burning   witches   that   the 
blackened  stakes  near  Wolfenbuttel  resembled  a  wood.    The 
consort  of  Duke  Eric  the  younger  was  compelled  to  fly  for 
safety  to  her  brother  Augustus  of  Saxony,  Julius  having, 
probably  from  interested  motives,  accused  her  of  witchcraft. 


WAR    OF    LIBERATION    IN    NETHERLANDS  937 

The  Ascanian  family  of  Lauenburg  was  sunk  in  vice. 
The  same  license  continued  from  one  generation  to  another; 
the  country  was  deeply  in  debt,  and  how,  under  these  cir- 
cumstances, the  cujus  regio  was  maintained  may  easily  be 
conceived.  The  Protestant  clergy  of  this  duchy  were  pro- 
verbial for  ignorance,  license,  and  immorality. 

The  imperial  court  at  Vienna  offered,  by  its  dignity  and 
morality,  a  bright  contrast  to  the  majority  of  the  Protestant 
courts,  whose  bad  example  was,  nevertheless,  followed  by 
many  of  the  Catholic  princes,  who,  without  taking  part  in 
the  Reformation,  had  thereby  acquired  greater  independence. 

CXCIX.    Contests  Between  the  Lutheran   Church  and  the 

Princes 

The  whole  Reformation  was  a  triumph  of  temporal  over 
spiritual  power.  Luther  himself,  in  order  to  avoid  anarchy, 
had  placed  all  the  power  in  the  hands  of  the  princes.  The 
memory  of  the  ancient  hierarchy  had,  however,  not  been 
consigned  to  oblivion,  and  the  new  passions  roused  by  the 
Reformation  constantly  gave  the  preachers  an  influence  of 
which  they  well  knew  how  to  avail  themselves  in  opposition 
to  the  weaker  princes.  Had  they  not  been  defeated  by  their 
own  want  of  union,  they  might,  at  all  events,  have  rendered 
the  triumph  of  the  temporal  power  less  easy. 

The  strict  Lutherans,  by  whom  the  least  tenable  and 
least  practical  theses  of  Luther,  which  fostered  disunion 
among  the  Reformers,  were  rigidly  defended  against  the 
attacks  of  the  Catholics,  the  Zwinglians,  and  the  Calvinists, 
had  fixed  themselves  at  Jena  under  the  youthful  John  Fred* 
erick,  the  son  of  the  expelled  elector  of  like  name.  The 
Illyrian,  Flacius,  the  spiritual  head  of  this  university,  was 
an  energetic  but  narrow-minded  man,  by  whom  Luther's 
doctrine  concerning  original  sin  was  so  extremely  exagger- 
ated that  he  declared  "original  sin  not  only  innate  in  man, 
but  his  very  essence,  and  that  he  was  thoroughly  bad;  an 
image,  not  of  God,  but  of  the  devil."     He  was,  it  is  true, 


938  THE    HISTORY    OF    GERMANY 

driven  to  this  extreme  by  the  exaggerated  assertions  of  Agric- 
ola  at  Berlin,  and  of  Osiander  at  Koenigsberg,  who  main- 
tained that  man  had  the  privilege,  when  once  touched  by 
grace,  of  being  no  longer  subject  to  sin,  whatever  his  actions 
might  be.  Between  these  two  extremes  stood  the  Witten- 
berg party  under  the  aged  and  gentle-minded  Melancthon, 
and  that  of  Tubingen  under  the  learned  Brenz,  who  was 
shortly  to  be  followed  by  the  diplomatizing  Jacob  Andrea. 

The  relation  in  which  these  theological  parties  stood  to 
temporal  politics  was  extremely  simple.  The  doctrine  of 
grace  taught  by  Agricola  and  Osiander  placed  man  in  a  high 
position,  flattered  him,  facilitated  the  forgiveness  and  also 
the  commission  of  sin  by  the  doctrine  of  justification,  and 
therefore  exactly  suited  the  licentious  princes.  The  founders 
of  this  doctrine  also  manifested  the  utmost  servility  in  the 
external  observances  of  the  church,  and  conceded  everything 
to  their  sovereign.  This  sect  would  have  triumphed  over 
the  more  gloomy  tenets  of  the  Flacians,  who,  inflexible  in 
the  maintenance  of  external  observances,  bade  defiance  to 
the  princes,  had  it  not  in  its  pure  theological  dogma  more 
resembled  Calvinism  than  genuine  Lutheramsm.  The  ma- 
jority of  the  princes,  decidedly  biased  against  Calvinism  on 
account  of  its  republican  tendency,  preferred  Lutheranism 
and  the  hateful  contest  with  its  theologians. 

John  Frederick  and  his  chancellor,  Bruck,  actuated  by 
hereditary  hatred  of  the  elector,  Augustus,  countenanced 
the  attacks  of  the  theologians  of  Jena  upon  those  of  Witten- 
berg. The  Interim  furnished  Flacius  with  an  opportunity 
for  defending  the  Adiaphora  (sacrificed  by  the  followers  of 
Melancthon  at  Wittenberg  as  subordinate  to  the  Interim), 
which  he  maintained  as  essential;  and  for  carrying  on  a  dis- 
pute concerning  the  efficacy  of  good  works,  which  he  totally 
rejected  and  declared  to  be  a  doctrine  of  destruction.  The 
most  criminal  wretch,  possessing  faith,  was,  according  to 
him,  to  be  preferred  before  the  most  virtuous  unbeliever. 
An  antagonist  appearing  at  Jena  in  the  person  of  Strigel,  a 
disciple  of  Melancthon,  a  Philipist,  supported  by  Hugel,  he 


WAR    OF    LIBERATION    IN    NETHERLANDS  939 

caused  them  both  to  be  thrown  into  prison.  A  elever  phy- 
sician, named  Schrceter,  however,  pointing  out  to  the  duke 
"the  advantage  of  making  use  of  the  clergy  instead  of  al- 
lowing them  to  make  use  of  him,"  he  excluded  the  whole 
"of  the  professors  of  Jena  from  the  consistory,  which  he 
composed  of  laymen.  In  the  midst  of  these  disorders, 
Melancthon,  who  had  long  sighed  for  relief  from  ecclesi- 
astical disputes,  found  peace  in  the  grave  in  1559.  The 
Flacians  triumphantly  beheld  the  elector's  conciliatory  pro- 
posals scornfully  rejected  by  John  Frederick,  but,  deceived 
by  the  belief  of  their  being  the  cause,  openly  rebelling  against 
the  ducal  mandate  by  which  they  were  deprived  of  all  eccle- 
siastical authority,  they  were  deposed  and  expelled  the  coun- 
try in  1562.  Flacius,  cruelly  persecuted  by  his  former  pu- 
pils, especially  by  the  morose  Heshusius,  died  in  miserj7" 
at  Frankfort  on  the  Maine  in  1575. 

The  Tubingen  party,  in  1558  made  the  extraordinary 
proposition  of  placing  a  superintendent-general,  consequent- 
.  ly  a  Protestant  pope,  over  the  whole  of  the  new  church; 
this  proposition,  however,  failed,  the  princes  having  no  in- 
clination to  render  themselves  once  more  subordinate  to  an 
ecclesiastic. 

Albert,  duke  of  Prussia,  was  severely  chastised  for  the 
foundation  of  the  university  of  Ingolstadt  in  1546 — notwith- 
standing the  comfortable  doctrine  of  his  favorite,  Osiander 
— by  the  jealousy  of  the  professors,  some  of  whom,  as  follow- 
ers of  Flacius,  others  at  the  instigation  of  the  ancient  aris- 
tocracy of  the  Teutonic  Order,  threw  themselves,  headed  by 
Moerlin,  into  the  opposition,  and  roused  the  whole  country 
against  the  talented  and  courtly  Osiander.  On  his  sudden 
death  in  1552  the  duke  published  a  mandate  ordaining  peace. 
Moerlin  bade  him  defiance,  was  deposed,  and  fled  to  Bruns- 
wick; upon  which  the  nobility,  cities,  and  clergy  confeder- 
ated, and  assumed  such  a  threatening  aspect  that  all  the 
Osiandhsts  quitted  the  country.  Skalich,  a  Croatian  by 
"birth,  the  duke's  privy  councillor,  fled.  The  court  chap- 
lain,   Funk,   and  some  of  the  councillors,   deeming  them- 


940  THE    HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

selves  in  security,  remained.  Mcerlin' s  adherents,  however, 
compelled  the  duke  to  discharge  his  mercenaries,  the  duchess 
to  retract  her  former  declaration  in  Osiander's  favor,  and 
seized  the  persons  of  the  councillors  in  the  presence  of  their 
sovereign.  Horst,  one  of  his  favorites,  embraced  the  knees 
of  his  master,  who  wept  in  his  helplessness.  Horst,  Funk, 
and  others  were  beheaded,  and  the  duke  was  compelled  to 
recall  Mcerlin,  in  1566,  whose  insolence  broke  the  heart  of 
the  aged  duke  and  duchess,  both  of  whom  expired  on  the 
same  day,  in  1568.  Their  son,  Albert  Frederick,  a  boy 
fifteen  years  of  age,  was  driven  insane  by  the  treatment  he 
received  from  Mcerlin  and  the  nobility.  Mcerlin  died  in 
1571,  and  bequeathed  his  office  to  Heshusius,  a  man  of  con- 
genial character,  possessing  all  the  instincts  of  the  dog  ex- 
cept his  fidelity.  Such  were  the  horrid  natures  produced 
by  the  passions  of  the  age! 

The  feud  carried  on  by  John  Frederick  against  Augustus, 
elector  of  Saxony,  terminated  in  blood.  John  Frederick,  im- 
plicated in  an  attempt  made  by  a  Franconian  noble,  William 
von  Grumbach,  to  revive  Sickingen's  project  for  the  down- 
fall of  the  princes,  was  put  with  him  under  the  ban  of  the 
empire,  which  Augustus  executed  upon  him.  John  Fred- 
erick was  taken  prisoner  in  Gotha,  borne  in  triumph  to 
Vienna,  and  imprisoned  for  life  at  Neustadt.  Grumbach 
and  Brttck  were  quartered,  and  their  adherents  hanged  and 
executed.  On  the  death  of  John  William,  John  Frederick's 
brother,  who  died  in  1573,  his  infant  children  fell  under 
the  guardianship  of  the  elector,  Augustus,  who  expelled  all 
the  Flacian  preachers,  one  hundred  and  eleven  in  number, 
from  Weimar,  and  reduced  them  to  beggary.  The  Philip- 
ists  triumphed.  Their  leader,  Peucer,  Melancthon's  son-in- 
law,  the  elector's  private  physician,  was  in  great  favor  at 
court.  Emboldened  by  success,  they  attempted  to  promul- 
gate their  tenets,  in  which  they  approached  those  of  the  Cal- 
vinists,  and  published  a  new  catechism  in  1571,  which  aroused 
the  suspicion  of  Julius  of  Brunswick,  who  warned  the  elec- 
tor against  his  crypto  calvinistic  clergy.    Augustus  instantly 


WAR    OF   LIBERATION   IN   NETHERLANDS  941 

convoked  his  clergy,  and  a  satisfactory  explanation  took 
place;  but  in  1574,  influenced  by  his  consort  Anna,  a  Danish 
princess,  who  ascribed  the  death  of  their  infant  son  to  the 
fact  of  his  having  been  held  at  the  font  by  Peucer,  the 
crypto-calvinist,  he  threw  both  him  and  his  adherents,  on  a 
supposition  of  treachery,  into  prison,  assembled  the  whole 
of  the  clergy  at  Torgau,  and  compelled  them  to  retract  the 
tenets  they  had  so  long  defended  in  the  pulpit  and  by  the 
press.  Six  of  their  number  alone,  Riidiger,  Crell,  Wiede- 
bram,  Cruciger,  Pegel,  and  Moller,  refused  obedience  to  the 
electoral  mandate,  and  were  sent  into  banishment.  Peucer 
remained  for  twelve  years  in  a  narrow,  unwholesome  dun- 
geon, without  books  or  writing  implements. 

The  fanaticism  with  which  the  Calvinists  were  persecuted 
was  increased  by  other  causes.  Their  tenets  being  embraced 
by  Frederick,  elector  of  the  Pfalz,  by  whom  the  French 
Huguenot  refugees  were  protected,  a  confederacy  was 
formed  against  him  by  Christopher,  duke  of  Wurtemberg, 
Wolfgang,  duke  of  Pfalz- Neu burg,  and  Charles,  duke  of 
Baden.  Frederick,  rendered  more  obstinate  by  opposition, 
published,  in  1563,  the  notorious  Heidelberg  Catechism  as 
form  of  belief,  the  most  severe  bull  in  condemnation  of  secta- 
rians called  forth  by  the  Reformation,  and  the  dispute  would 
have  taken  a  serious  turn  had  not  the  emperor,  Maximilian 
II.,  avoided  touching  upon  every  fresh  ecclesiastical  innova- 
tion at  the  diet  held  at  Augsburg  in  1566.  Frederick  re- 
mained isolated,  and  maintained  Calvinism  throughout  his 
dominions  with  extreme  severity.  A  Socinian  clergyman, 
Sylvan,  a  disciple  of  the  Pole,  Socin,  who  denied  the  Trin- 
ity, and  merely  admitted  one  person  in  the  Godhead,  was, 
by  his  orders,  beheaded  at  Heidelberg  in  1572.  Frederick 
died  in  1576.  His  son,  Louis,  a  zealous  Lutheran,  de- 
stroyed his  father's  work.  On  entering  Heidelberg  he  or- 
dered all  among  his  subjects  who  were  not  Lutheran  to  quit 
the  city,  and  those  among  the  Calvinistic  preachers  who  re- 
fused to  recant  were  expelled  the  country. 

The  various  parties  were  now  sufficiently  chastised,  and 


942  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

the  clergy  demoralized,  for  the  safe  publication  of  a  fresh 
formula  or  concordat  by  the  Lutheran  princes.  In  Branden- 
burg the  clergy  had  been  taught  blind  submission  to  the 
court  by  Agricola,  and,  in  1571,  the  elector,  John  George, 
placed  the  consistory  under  the  presidency  of  a  layman, 
Chemnitz.  Augustus,  elector  of  Saxony,  found  a  servile 
tool  for  a  similar  purpose  in  Selneccer,  who,  with  Andrea 
of  Wurtemberg,  the  son  of  a  smith  of  Waiblingen,  com- 
pleted the  triumvirate,  who,  in  the  name  of  the  Lutherans 
of  Southern  Germany,  drew  up  the  formula,  in  1577,  with- 
out the  convocation  of  a  synod,  in  the  monastery  of  Bergen, 
and  imposed  it  upon  the  whole  of  the  Lutheran  world.  Wil- 
liam of  Hesse,  whose  father,  Philip,  had  died,  laden  with. 
years,  in  1567,  Pomerania,  Holstein,  Anhalt,  and  some  of 
the  cities,  alone  protested  against  it.  The  people  obeyed. 
Harmony  had  existed  among  the  Reformers  since  the 
covenant — by  which  all  essential  differences  were  smoothed 
down — entered  into,  in  1563,  by  the  obstinate  elector  of 
the  Pfalz  and  Bullinger,  Zwingli's  successor  in  Zurich. 
Basel  alone  maintained  a  separate  confession  between  Luther- 
anism  and  Zwingliism.  The  disputes  among  the  Reformers, 
although  less  important  than  those  among  the  Lutherans, 
nevertheless  equalled  them  in  virulence. 

CC.    Revolt  in  the  Netherlands — The  Geuses 

Charles  V.  had  assiduously  endeavored  to  round  off  the 
Netherlands,  and  to  render  them  a  bulwark  against  France 
and  the  Protestants.  Guelders  resisted  the  Habsburg  with 
the  greatest  obstinacy. '  The  aged  and  childless  duke,  Charles, 
was  compelled  by  the  Estates,  when  on  his  deathbed,  to  name 
William,  duke  of  Juliers,  his  successor,  in  preference  to  the 
Habsburg.     Ghent  also  revolted  against  the  enormous  taxes 

1  Hoog  van  moed, 
Klein  van  goed, 
Een  Zwaard  in  de  hand 
1st  wapen  van  Geldcrland. 


WAR   OF  LIBERATION   IN  NETHERLANDS  943 

imposed  by  the  emperor,  who  appeared,  in  1514,  in  person 
before  the  gates,  forced  the  citizens  to  submit,  and  beheaded 
twenty  of  the  principal  townsmen.  Guelders  was  also  re- 
duced, and  William  of  Juliers  was  compelled  to  renounce 
his  claim  in  favor  of  the  Habsburg. 

The  emperor  vainly  attempted  to  keep  the  Netherlands 
free  from  heresy  by  the  publication  of  the  cruel  Placates. 
Tyranny  merely  rendered  zeal  extravagant,  and  gave  rise  to 
secret  sectarianism.  In  1546,  a  certain  Loy  was  executed 
for  promulgating  the  extraordinary  doctrine  of  the  existing 
world  being  hell.  From  Basel,  his  place  of  refuge,  the  in- 
fluence of  David  Joris,  and  of  another  Anabaptist,  Menno 
Simonis,  greatly  spread.  The  Mennonites  were  distinguished 
from  the  rest  of  the  Anabaptists  by  their  gentleness  and  love 
of  peace,  which  caused  their  renunciation  of  the  use  of  arms. 
The  French  Calvinists,  who  had  found  their  way  into  Flan- 
ders, were,  however,  far  more  intractable  and  bold.  Such 
numbers  were  thrown  into  prison  and  sentenced  to  the  stake 
that  the  mercantile  class  addressed  a  petition  to  the  emperor, 
representing  the  injury  thereby  inflicted  on  industry  and  com- 
merce. Material  interests,  nevertheless,  predominated  to 
such  a  degree  in  the  Netherlands  that  the  victims  of  the 
Placates,  numerous  as  they  were,  excited  little  attention 
among  the  mass  of  the  population,  and'  amid  the  immense 
press  of  business.'  Charles  drew  large  sums  of  money  from 
the  Netherlands,  which  he  at  the  same  time  provided  with 
every  means  for  the  acquisition  of  wealth.  Commerce  and 
manufactures  flourished.  He  also  rendered  himself  ex- 
tremely popular  by  his  constant  use  of  his  native  tongue, 
Flemish,  his  adoption  of  that  dress,  and  the  favor  he  showed 
to  his  countrymen  even  in  foreign  service.  His  father,  Maxi- 
milian, had  greatly  contributed  to  bring  Low  Dutch,  which 

1  The  cities  were  at  the  height  of  their  prosperity;  hence  the  epithets,  Brus- 
sels the  Noble,  Ghent  the  Groat,  Mechlin  the  Beautiful,  Nainur  the  Strong, 
Antwerp  the  Rich,  Louvain  the  Wine  (on  account  of  her  university). 

"Nohilibus  Brucella  viris,  Antwerpia  minimis, 
Gandavum  laqueis,  formosis  Brugga  puellis, 
Lovaaium  doctis,  gaudet  Mechlinia  stultis. " 


944  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

under  the  Burgundian  rule  had  ceded  to  French,  into  general 
use.  Under  the  Habsburgs  the  literature  of  the  Nether- 
lands was  greatly  fostered,  and  chambers  of  rhetoric  were 
formed  in  all  the  cities.  Charles  V.,  a  thorough  Fleming 
at  heart,  did  still  more  for  the  country,  notwithstanding 
which,  he  abandoned  his  Germanic  system,  and  sacrificed 
the  fine  provinces  of  the  Netherlands  to  the  stranger. 

The  petty  policy  with  which  this  monarch  coquetted  dur- 
ing his  long  reign,  with  which  he  embarrassed  instead  of 
smoothing  affairs,  the  great  cunning  and  power  with  which 
he  executed  the  most  untoward  and  the  most  useless  projects, 
was  not  contradicted  by  his  ill-starred  will,  by  which  he  arbi- 
trarily bestowed  the  Netherlands  on  his  son,  Philip  II.  of 
Spain,  deprived  Germany  of  her  finest  province,  and  laid  a 
heavy  burden  upon  Spain.  By  it  the  natural  position  of  the 
nations  in  regard  to  one  another  was  disturbed  and  an  arti- 
ficial connection  created,  the  dissolution  of  which  was  to  cost 
torrents  of  blood. 

Philip  II.  at  first  received  the  most  brilliant  proofs  of  the 
fidelity  of  the  Netherlands  by  their  opposition  to  the  French, 
who  had  renewed  the  war,  and  were  again  aided  by  the 
Swiss.  Their  general,  Count  Bgmont,  victorious  at  St. 
Quentin  and  Gravelines,  concluded  a  favorable  peace  at 
Cambresis  in  1559,  which  restored  Dunkirk — that,  in 
1540,  had  been  taken  by  the  English,  who,  in  1558,  had 
been  deprived  of  it  by  the  French — to  Philip.  The  breast 
of  this  monarch,  nevertheless,  remained  impervious  to  grati- 
tude. During  the  battle  of  St.  Quentin,  while  others  fought 
for  him,  he  remained  upon  his  knees,  and  vowed,  were  he 
victorious,  to  raise  a  splendid  church  in  honor  of  St.  Lau- 
rence, and,  in  performance  of  this  vow,  erected,  in  the  vi- 
cinity of  Madrid,  the  famous  monastery  of  the  Escurial,  on 
which  he  expended  all  the  treasures  of  Spain.  Being  over- 
taken by  a  storm  during  a  sea  voyage,  he  took  a  solemn 
oath,  in  case  of  safety,  to  exterminate  all  the  heretics  in 
honor  of  God,  and,  in  fulfilment  of  this  vow,  spilled  torrents 
of  the  blood  of  his  subjects  with  the  most  phlegmatic  indiffer 


WAR    OF   LIBERATION   IN   NETHERLANDS  945 

ence.  His  principal  occupation  consisted  of  repose  in  soli- 
tary chambers.  The  gloom  of  the  Escurial  formed  his  ideal 
of  happiness.  The  bustle  of  public  life,  the  expression  of  the 
popular  will,  were  equally  obnoxious  to  him.  He  therefore 
endeavored  to  maintain  tranquillity  by  enforcing  blind  obedi- 
ence or  by  death.1 

Philip,  on  his  departure  for  Spain,  left  his  half-sister, 
a  natural  daughter  of  Charles  V.,  Margaret  of  Parma,  a 
woman  of  masculine  appearance,  stadtholderess  of  the  Neth- 
erlands, and  placed  near  her  person  the  Cardinal  Granvella, 
a  man  of  acute  and  energetic  mind,  blindly  devoted  to  his 
service.  This  appointment  greatly  offended  the  Dutch,  who, 
instead  of  receiving  a  native  stadtholder,  either  the  Prince 
of  Orange  or  Count  Egmont,  in  compliance  with  their  wishes, 
beheld  a  base-born  stranger  at  the  head  of  the  government. 
Philip,  instead  of  making  use  of  the  nobility  against  the  in- 
ferior classes,  by  this  step  impolitically  roused  their  anger; 
suspicious  and  wayward,  he  preferred  a  throne  secured  by 
violence  to  one,  like  that  of  his  father,  ill-sustained  by  in- 
trigue. With  the  view  of  effectually  checking  the  progress 
of  heresy,  he  decreed  that  the  four  bishoprics,  until  now  ex- 
isting in  the  Netherlands,  should  be  increased  to  seventeen. 
This  unconstitutional  decree  gave  general  discontent;  to  the 
nobility,  whose  influence  was  necessarily  diminished  by  the 
appointment  of  an  additional  number  of  churchmen;  to 
the  people,  on  account  of  their  secret  inclination  to  and 
recognition  of  the  tenets  of  the  Reformed  Church;  and  to 
the  clergy,  whose  ancient  possessions  were  thus  arbitrarily 
partitioned  among  a  number  of  newcomers.  The  representa- 
tions made  by  every  class  were  disregarded;  Granvella  en- 
forced the  execution  of  the  decree,  erected  the  new  bishop- 
rics, and  commenced  a  bitter  persecution  of  the  heretics. 
The  Dutch,   nevertheless,  did  not  overstep  the  bounds  of 


1  Tlic  best  portraits  of  this  monarch,  particularly  those  at  Naples,  bear  by 
no  means  a  gloomy  or  austere  expression,  but  rather  one  of  cool  impudence. 
The  features  are  of  a  common,  nay,  almost  knavish  cast. 

Germany.     Vol.  III.— 2 


946  THE   HISTORY    OF  GERMANY 

obedience,  but  revenged  themselves  on  the  cardinal  by  open 
mockery  and  the  publication  of  caricatures,1  which  rendered 
the  country  hateful  to  him,  and  he  took  his  departure  in 
1564. 

The  Netherlands  had  patiently  permitted  the  imposition 
of  the  useless  bishoprics,  the  doubly  severe  Placates,  the  new 
resolutions  of  the  council  of  Trent,  and  would  indubitably 
have  remained  tranquil  but  for  the  attempt  made  to  intro- 
duce the  Inquisition  by  Philip,  which  at  once  raised  a  serious 
opposition.  The  very  name  of  this  institution  was  not  heard 
without  a  shudder.  The  manner  in  which  it  had  in  America 
sacrificed  thousands  of  Indians  in  bloody  holocaust  to  the 
Christian  idols  of  Spain,  and  the  autos-da-fe,  great  execu- 
tional  festivals,  during  which  thousands  of  heretics  were 
burned  alive,  and  over  which  the  king,  in  his  royal  robes, 
presided,  were  still  fresh  in  men's  minds.  "We  are  no  stu- 
pid Mexicans,"  exclaimed  the  Dutch,  "we  will  maintain  our 
ancient  rights ! ' '  The  nobles  signed  the  compromise,  a  formal 
protest  against  the  Inquisition,  which  they  laid  in  the  form 
of  a  petition  before  the  regent,  in  1566.  The  procession, 
headed  by  Count  de  Brederode,  went  on  foot  and  by  two  and 
two  to  the  palace.  Count  de  Barlaimont,  a  zealous  royalist, 
on  viewing  their  approach,  said  jeeringly,  "Ce  n'est  qu'un 
tas  de  gueux !' '  Margaret  gave  them  a  friendly  reception, 
but,  incapable  of  acting  in  this  affair  without  authority  from 
the  king,  promised  to  inform  him  of  their  request.  Barlai- 
mont's  remark  being  afterward  repeated  at  a  banquet  at- 
tended by  the  nobility,  Brederode  good-humoredly  sent  a 
beggar's  wallet  and  a  wooden  goblet  round  the  table  with 
the  toast,  "Vivent  les  gueux!"  The  name  was  henceforth 
adopted  by  the  faction. 

The  nobles,  offended  at  the  contemptuous  silence  with 
which  their  petition  was  treated  by  the  king,  now  ventured 


1  They  imitated  his  cardinal's  hat  with  a  fool's  cap;  represented  him  under 
the  form  of  a  hen,  brooding  over  seventeen  eggs,  and  hatching  bishops.  Eg- 
mont's  servants,  even  at  that  time,  wore  a  bundle  of  arrows  embroidered  on  their 
sleeves,  a  symbol  of  union,  afterward  adopted  as  the  arms  of  Holland. 


WAR    OF   LIBERATION    IN    NETHERLANDS  947 

to  prescribe  a  term  for  the  reception  of  his  reply.  A  great 
popular  tumult,  in  which  the  nobles  were  partially  impli- 
cated, broke  out  simultaneously.  The  captive  heretics  were 
released  by  force,  the  churches  and  monasteries  were  stormed, 
and  all  the  pictures,  to  the  irreparable  injury  of  native  art, 
destroyed.  The  nobles  were,  however,  finally  constrained  by 
the  stadtholderess  to  come  to  terms.  The  Calvinists  in  Va- 
lenciennes and  Tournay  alone  made  an  obstinate  defence, 
but  were  compelled  to  yield.  Egmont,  anxious  for  the  main- 
tenance of  tranquillity  and  for  the  continuance  of  the  royal 
favor,  acted  with  great  severity. 

Philip,  without  either  ratifying  or  declaring  against  the 
terms  of  peace,  proclaimed  a  general  amnesty,  and  announced 
his  speedy  arrival  in  the  Netherlands,  and  his  desire  to  fulfil 
the  wishes  of  his  people.  Lulled  suspicion  was,  however, 
speedily  reawakened  by  the  news  of  the  approach,  not  of  the 
king,  but  of  his  ferocious  commander-in-chief,  the  duke  of 
Alba,  at  the  head  of  a  powerful  force.  The  more  spirited 
among  the  nobles  advised  instant  recourse  to  arms,  and  the 
defence  of  the  frontier  against  the  approaching  army,  but 
were  overruled  by  the  moderate  party,  who  hesitated  to  rebel 
against  a  monarch  whose  intentions  were  merely  suspected. 
William  of  Orange,  count  of  Nassau,  the  wealthy  possessor 
of  Chalons-Orange,  stadtholder  of  Holland,  Seeland,  and 
Utrecht,  surnamed  the  Silent,  on  account  of  his  reserve, 
whose  talents  had  endeared  him  to  Charles  V.,  vainly  warned 
his  friends  of  the  danger  they  incurred.  The  Counts  Egmont 
and  Horn  remained  incredulous,  and  William,  unable  to  per- 
suade the  States  to  make  a  resolute  opposition  before  the 
mask  was  openly  dropped  by  the  king,  resolved  to  secure  his 
safety  by  flight.  On  taking  leave  of  Egmont  he  said,  "I  fear 
you  will  be  the  first  over  whose  corpse  the  Spaniards  will 
march!"  Some  of  the  nobles  mockingly  calling  after  him 
as  he  turned  away,  "Adieu,  Prince  Lackland!"  he  rejoined, 
"Adieu,  headless  sirs!"  Numerous  adherents  to  the  new 
faith  and  wealthy  manufacturers,  alarmed  at  the  threaten- 
ing aspect  of  affairs,   quitted  the  country.     The  majority 


948  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

withdrew  to  England.1  One  hundred  thousand  men,  more 
than  would  have  sufficed  for  the  defence  of  the  country 
against  the  Spanish  army,  had  the  States  been  resolute  and 
united,  emigrated.  Brederode  also  fled,  and  died  shortly 
afterward  in  exile. 

Alba,  a  monster  both  in  body  and  mind,  entered  Brussels 
in  the  summer  of  1567,  at  the  head  of  a  picked  force  of 
twelve  thousand  Spaniards  and  a  body  of  German  troops 
which  he  raised  on  his  march  from  Milan.  He  was  received 
with  a  death-like  silence.  Fear  had  seized  every  heart.  He 
commenced  by  displaying  the  greatest  mildness,  received 
Egmont  and  the  rest  of  the  nobles  with  open  arms  and  over- 
whelmed them  with  civility,  called  no  one  to  account,  took 
no  step  without  convoking  the  Estates,  and  inspired  the 
Dutch  with  such  confidence  that  numbers  of  the  more  timid, 
who  had  withdrawn,  were  induced  to  quit  their  strongholds 
and  to  return  to  Brussels.  For  three  weeks  the  same  part 
was  enacted;  the  certainty  of  the  intended  absence  of  the 
Prince  of  Orange  then  caused  him  to  throw  off  the  mask, 
and,  inviting  the  Counts  Egmont  and  Horn  to  a  conference, 
he  unexpectedly  placed  them  under  arrest,  September  9,  1567, 
and  from  this  moment  cast  away  the  scabbard  to  bathe  his 
sword  in  the  blood  of  the  unsuspecting  Dutch. 

The  regent,  Margaret,  was,  under  pretext  of  a  secret  order 
from  the  king,  sent  out  of  the  country,  and  a  criminal  court, 
which  passed  judgment  upon  all  the  Dutch  who  confessed 
heretical  tenets,  had  signed  the  compromise,  or  been  impli- 
cated in  the  disturbances,  was  appointed.  This  court  was 
solely  composed  of  Spaniards,  to  whom  some  Dutch  traitors, 
for  instance,  Hessels  and  the  Count  de  Barlaimont,  served 
as  informers.    The  confiscation  of  property  was  the  principal 

1  They  were  rejected  by  the  Hanse  towns  from  an  old  sentiment  of  jealousy, 
and  on  account  of  their  Calvinistic  tenets.  England,  more  clear-sighted,  gave 
the  industrious  and  wealthy  emigrants  a  warm  reception.  It  was  in  this  manner 
that  William  Curten  of  Flanders  carried  his  art  and  his  capital  to  England,  to 
whose  monarch  he  lent  enormous  sums;  he  also  settled  a  colony  of  eighteen 
thousand  men  in  the  island  of  Barbadoes,  and  opened  the  trade  between  England 
and  China.  He  died  poor,  but  his  grandson  presented  a  number  of  valuable  an- 
tiques and  a  collection  of  natural  history  to  the  British  Museum. 


WAR    OF   LIBERATION    IN    NETHERLANDS  949 

purpose  for  which  this  court  was  instituted,  and  numerous 
wealthy  proprietors  were  accused  and  beheaded,  though 
guiltless  of  offence.  The  secret  of  their  hidden  treasures 
was  extorted  by  the  application  of  the  most  horrid  tortures, 
after  which  the  unhappy  victims  were  delivered  over  to  the 
executioner.  Blood  flowed  in  torrents,  Egmont  and  Horn 
were  executed,  in  1568,  and  two  noble  Dutchmen,  Bergen 
and  Montmorency- Montigny,  sent  as  ambassadors  to  Madrid, 
were  by  Philip's  command  put  to  death,  the  one  by  poison, 
the  other  in  his  secret  dungeon. 

CCI.     William  of  Orange 

William  had  fled  into  Germany  to  his  brother,  John  the 
Elder  of  Nassau-  Dillenburg,  one  of  the  noblest  men  of  his 
day,  who  was  unfortunately  sovereign  over  merely  a  petty 
territory.  He  was  the  first  who,  from  feelings  of  humanity 
and  respect  for  his  fellow  Christians,  abolished  bond-service. 
He  also  engaged  with  his  whole  forces  in  the  Dutch  cause, 
and  aided  William,  who  found  no  sympathy  among  the  Lu- 
tL  ^an  princes,  to  levy  troops.  The  high  Gimsburg,  in  the 
solitary  forests,  was  the  spot  where  the  leaders  secretly  met. 
They  succeeded  in  raising  four  small  bodies  of  troops,  com- 
posed of  exiles,  friends  of  liberty,  and  Huguenots.  John, 
William,  and  their  younger  brothers,  Louis,  Adolf,  and 
Henry,  generously  mortgaged  the  whole  of  their  posses- 
sions, and  entered  the  Netherlands  with  their  united  forces.1 
Alba  instantly  seized  William's  son,  Philip  William,  a  stu- 
dent at  Louvain,  and  sent  him  a  prisoner  to  Spam.  The 
struggle  commenced  in  1568.  The  princes  of  Nassau  gained 
a  victory  at  Heligerlee,  which  cost  Adolf  his  life,  but 
the  Spaniards  were  victorious  at  Groningen,  where  Louis 
lost  six  thousand  men,  and  narrowly  escaped  by  swimming. 

1  Four  of  those  noble-spirited  brethren  shod  their  life-blood  in  the  cause  of 
the  freedom  of  conscience  and  of  the  independence  of  the  Netherlands,  Adolf, 
Leuis,  and  Henry  falling  on  tho  baitlolield,  William  by  the  hand  of  the  assassin. 
John  v  is  for  some  time  stadtholder  of  Gueldcrs,  but  returned  to  his  native 
Nassau. 


950  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

A  merely  desultory  warfare  was  afterward  carried  on  by 
petty  bands  in  the  forests  (the  Bush  or  Wood  Geuses),  or 
on  the  sea,  by  the  Water  Geuses.  Hermann  de  Euyter,  the 
grazier,  boldly  seized  the  castle  of  Lcewenstein,  which  he 
blew  up  when  in  danger  of  falling  again  into  the  hands  of 
the  Spanish. 

There  being  nothing  more  to  confiscate,  Alba  imposed  a 
tax,  first  of  the  hundredth,  then  of  the  tenth,  and  afterward 
of  the  twentieth  penny.     He  boasted  that  he  could  extract 
more  gold  from  the  Netherlands  than  from  Peru,  and,  never- 
theless, withheld  the  pay  from  his  soldiery  in  order  to  incite 
them  still  more  to  pillage.     Close  to  Antwerp  he  erected  his 
principal  fortress,  the  celebrated  citadel,  from  which  he  com- 
manded the  finest  city  in  the  Netherlands,  the  navigation  of 
the  Scheldt,  Holland  on  one  side,  and  Flanders  on  the  other. 
It  was  here  that  he  caused  a  monument,  formed  of  the  guns 
he  had  captured,  to  be  raised  in  his  honor  during  his  life- 
time.    The  pope,  in  order  to  reward  his  services  and  to  en- 
courage his  persecution  of  the  heretics,  sent  him  a  consecrated 
sword.     The  number  of  victims  executed  at  his  command 
amounted  to  eighteen  thousand  six  hundred;  putrid  carcasses 
on  gallows  and  wheels  infested  all  the  country  roads.     The 
appearance   of   a   new   and  enormous  star  (in   Cassiopeia), 
which  for  more  than  a  year  remained  motionless  and  then 
disappeared,  filling  the  whole  of  Europe  with  terror  and  as- 
tonishment, and  a  dreadful  flood  on  the  coast  of  Friesland, 
by  which  twenty  thousand  men  were  carried  away,  added  to 
the  general  misery.    On  the  latter  occasion,  in  1572,  the  Span- 
ish stadtholder,  Billy,  gave  a  noble  example  by  the  erec- 
tion of  excellent  dikes,  which  found  many  imitators,  and 
his  memory  is  still  venerated  on  the  coasts  of  the  Northern 
Ocean.     Happy  would  it  have  been  for  Germany  had  all 
her  enemies  resembled  him! 

It  was  not  until  1572  that  William  regained  sufficient 
strength  to  retake  the  field.  Men  were  not  wanting,  but 
they  were  ill-provided  with  arms,  and  too  undisciplined  to 
stand  against  the  veteran  troops  of  the  duke.     By  sea  alone 


WAR    OF    LIBERATION   IN   NETHERLANDS  951 

was  success  probable.  William  von  der  Mark,  Count  von 
Lumay,  Egmont's  friend,  who  had  vowed  neither  to  comb 
nor  cut  his  hair  until  he  had  revenged  his  death,  a  descend- 
ant of  the  celebrated  Boar  of  Ardennes,  quitted  the  forests 
for  the  sea,  captured  the  richly-freighted  Spanish  ships,  and 
took  the  town  of  Briel  by  a  ruse  de  guerre.  Alba,  on  learn- 
ing this  event,  remarked  with  habitual  contempt,  "no  es 
nada"  (it  is  nothing).  These  words  and  a  pair  of  spectacles 
(Brille,  Briel)  were  placed  by  the  Geuses  on  their  banners. 
No  sooner  had  a  fortified  city  fallen  into  their  hands  than  the 
courage  of  the  Dutch  revived.  The  citizens  of  Vliessingen, 
animated  by  the  public  admonitions  of  their  pastor,  rebelled, 
put  the  Spaniards,  who  had  laid  the  foundation  of  another 
citadel  commanding  the  town,  to  death,  and  hanged  the 
architect,  Pacieco.  The  whole  of  Holland  followed  their 
example.  The  Spaniards  were  everywhere  slain  or  expelled, 
and  were  only  able  to  keep  their  footing  in  Middleburg. 

William  of  Orange  had  again  raised  an  army  in  Ger- 
many, and  his  brother  Louis  another  in  France.  The  faith- 
less French  court  offered  its  aid  on  condition  of  receiving  the 
ouuuuud  provinces,  while  William  was  to  retain  those  to 
the  north.  Louis  consented,  and  invaded  the  Hennegau, 
while  William  entered  Brabant;  but  this  negotiation  had 
been  merely  entered  into  by  the  Catholic  party  in  France, 
for  the  purpose  of  attracting  the  Huguenots  to  Paris,  where 
they  were  assassinated.  The  news  of  the  tragedy  enacted 
on  the  night  of  St.  Bartholomew  opened  the  eyes  of  the 
princes  of  Nassau  to  the  treachery  of  France,  and  they 
hastily  withdrew  their  troops.  A  plot  laid  for  William's 
capture  at  Mons  was  frustrated  by  the  fidelity  of  a  small 
dog  belonging  to  him,  which  is  still  to  be  seen  sculptured 
on  his  tomb. 

Alba,  burning  with  revenge,  now  marched  in  person  upon 
Mechlin,  where  he  plundered  the  city  and  put  all  the  inhabi- 
tants to  the  sword,  while  his  son,  Frederick,  committed  still 
more  fearful  atrocities  at  Zutphen.  Holland  was,  however, 
destined  to   bear  the  severest  punishment.     Frederick  was 


952  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

despatched  thither  with  orders  to  spare  neither  age  nor  sex. 
The  whole  of  the  inhabitants  of  Naarden,  contrary  to  the 
terms  of  capitulation,  were  treacherously  butchered.  Haar- 
lem was  gallantly  defended  by  her  citizens  and  by  a  troop  of 
three  hundred  women,  under  the  widow  Kenan  Hasselaar, 
during  the  whole  of  the  winter.  William  von  der  Mark  and 
William  of  Orange  vainly  attempted  to  raise  the  siege,  and 
the  town  was  at  length  compelled  by  famine  to  capitulate, 
1573.  Frederick  had  lost  ten  thousand  of  his  men.  The 
inhabitants  were  sent  to  the  block,  and  when  the  headsmen 
were  unable  from  fatigue  to  continue  their  office,  the  remain- 
ing victims,  three  hundred  excepted,  were  tied  back  to  back 
and  thrown  into  the  sea.  Frederick  then  marched  upon  Alt- 
maar,  which  was  so  desperately  defended  by  the  inhabitants, 
both  male  and  female,  that  one  thousand  of  his  men,  and 
some  of  the  three  hundred  Haarlemites,  fell  in  the  trenches, 
and  he  was  compelled  to  withdraw.  The  Water  Geuses  were 
at  the  same  time  victorious  in  a  naval  engagement,  in  which 
thirty  of  the  great  Spanish  ships  were  beaten,  and  the  enor- 
mous admiral's  ship,  the  Inquisition,  and  six  others,  taken 
by  twenty-four  of  the  small  Dutch  vessels.  A  Spanish  fleet 
of  fifty- four  ships  was  afterward  beaten,  and  a  rich  convoy 
of  merchantmen  taken.  The  captured  vessels  were  manned 
with  Dutchmen,  and  Holland  ere  long  possessed  a  fine  fleet 
of  one  hundred  and  fifty  sail,  which  effectually  kept  the 
Spaniards  at  bay. 

The  Spanish  court  at  length  perceived  the  folly  of  its 
cruelty  and  severity.  Alba  was  recalled,  and  replaced  by 
Kequesens,  in  1574,  who  sought  by  gentleness  and  mild- 
ness to  restore  tranquillity.  The  Dutch,  however,  no  longer 
trusted  to  Spanish  promises,  and  continued  to  carry  on  war. 
Middleburg  fell  into  their  hands,  and  a  Spanish  fleet,  hasten- 
ing to  the  relief  of  that  town,  was  annihilated.  Success, 
nevertheless,  varied.  During  the  same  year,  the  princes 
were  beaten  in  an  open  engagement  on  the  Mookerheath 
near  Nimwegen,  where  Louis  and  Henry  fell,  covered  with 
glory.     Requesens  pacified  his  mutinous  soldiers,  who  de- 


WAR    OF    LIBERATION    IN    NETHERLANDS  953 

manded  their  pay,  with  a  promise  of  the  plunder  of  the  rich 
city  of  Leyden,  to  which  Valdez  suddenly  laid  siege  before 
it  could  provide  itself  with  provisions.  The  city,  surrounded 
by  sixty-two  Spanish  forts,  quickly  fell  a  prey  to  famine,  the 
Dutch  land  army  had  been  dispersed,  and  the  ships  of  the 
Water  Geuses  were  unavailable.  In  this  distress,  William's 
advice  to  cut  the  dikes  and  to  flood  the  country  was  eagerly 
put  into  practice.  "Better  to  spoil  the  land  than  to  lose  it," 
exclaimed  the  patriotic  people.  The  sea  poured  rapidly  over 
the  fields  and  villages,  bearing  onward  the  ships  of  the  gal- 
lant Geuses.  It  was,  nevertheless,  found  impossible  to  reach 
the  still  distant  walls  of  Leyden,  which  were  viewed  with 
bitter  rage  by  the  rough  and  weather-beaten  skippers,  on 
whose  broad-brimmed  hats  was  worn  a  half-moon  with  the 
inscription,  "Liever  turcx  dan  pausch, "  "Better  Turkish 
than  popish."  Boisot  and  Adrian  Wilhelmssen  headed  the 
expedition.  The  most  profound  misery  reigned,  meanwhile, 
in  the  city.  Six  thousand  of  the  inhabitants  had  already 
died  of  hunger.  The  prayers  of  the  wretched  survivors  were 
at  length  heard.  A  sea-breeze  sprang  up.  The  water,  im- 
pelled by  the  northeast  wind,  gradually  rose,  filled  the 
trenches  of  the  Spaniards,  who  sought  safety  in  flight,  and 
reached  the  city  walls,  bearing  on  its  broad  surface  the  boats 
of  the  brave  Geuses,  who,  after  distributing  bread  and  fish 
to  the  famishing  citizens  collected  on  the  walls,  went  in  pur- 
suit of  the  Spaniards,  of  whom  one  thousand  five  hundred 
were  drowned  or  slain  in  1575.  The  university  at  Leyden 
was  erected  in  memory  of  the  persevering  fidelity  of  the  in- 
habitants, and  in  compensation  for  their  losses.  The  anni- 
versary of  this  glorious  day  is  still  kept  there  as  a  festival. 
Holland  was  henceforth  free.  William  was  elected  stadt- 
holder  by  the  people,  but  still  in  the  name  of  their  obnoxious 
monarch,  and  the  Calvinistic  tenets  and  form  of  service  were 
re-established,  to  the  exclusion  of  those  of  the  Catholics  and 
Lutherans.  As  early  as  1574,  the  .Reformed  preachers  had, 
in  the  midst  of  danger,  opened  their  first  church  assembly  at 
Dordrecht.     The  cruelties  practiced  by  the  Catholics  were 


954  THE    HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

equalled  by  those  inflicted  on  the  opposing  party  by  the 
Reformers.  William  of  Orange  endeavored  to  repress  these 
excesses,  threw  William  von  der  Mark,  his  lawless  rival,  into 
prison,  where  he  shortly  afterward  died,  it  is  said,  by  poison, 
and  occupied  the  wild  soldiery,  during  the  short  peace  that 
ensued,  in  the  re-erection  of  the  dikes  torn  down  in  defence 
of  Leyden.  The  most  horrid  atrocities  were,  nevertheless, 
perpetrated  by  Sonoi,  by  which  the  few  Catholics  remaining 
in  Holland  were  exterminated  in  1577.  A  violent  com- 
motion also  took  place  in  Utrecht,  but  ceased  on  the  death 
of  the  last  of  her  archbishops,  Frederick  Schenk  (cupbearer) 
von  Tauten  burg,  in  1580. 

Spain  remained  tranquil.  The  armies  and  fleets  furnished 
by  Philip  had  cost  him  such  enormous  sums  that  the  state 
was  made  bankrupt  by  the  fall  in  the  revenue.  Requesens, 
who  was  neither  able  nor  willing  to  take  any  decisive  step, 
suddenly  expired  in  1576.  His  soldiery,  unpaid  and  impa- 
tient of  restraint,  now  gave  way  to  the  most  unbridled 
license,  dispersed  over  Flanders,  sacked  one  hundred  and 
twenty  villages,  and,  driving  in  their  van  numbers  of  cap- 
tive women  and  girls,  approached  the  gates  of  Maestricht, 
where,  the  citizens  refusing  to  fire  upon  the  helpless  crowd, 
the  Spaniards  forced  their  way  into  the  city,  where  they  prac- 
ticed every  variety  of  crime.  This  event  caused  the  long- 
suppressed  wrath  of  the  citizens  of  Ghent  to  explode.  The 
German  citizens  of  this  town,  who  favored  the  tenets  of  the 
Reformers,  had  unresistingly  submitted  to  Alba,  and,  al- 
though the  gallows  had  remained  standing  for  years  in  each 
of  the  city  squares,  and  numbers  of  Iconoclasts,  Reformed 
preachers,  and  Geuses  had  been  hanged,  beheaded,  and 
burned,  Ghent  had  suffered  comparatively  less  than  her 
sister  cities.  The  rumored  advance  of  the  Spanish  troops 
roused  the  whole  of  the  inhabitants,  the  men  flew  to  arms, 
the  women  aod  children  lent  their  aid  in  tearing  up  the 
pavement,  in  order  to  fortify  the  town  against  the  castle, 
commanded  by  Mondragon,  the  brave  defender  of  Middle- 
burg.     The  troops  of  the  Prince  of  Orange  were  allowed  to 


WAR    OF   LIBERATION    IN    NETHERLANDS  955 

garrison  the  city. — The  Spanish  soldiery,  however,  intimi- 
dated by  those  preparations,  and  conscious  of  their  want 
of  a  leader,  turned  off  toward  Antwerp,  which  they  took  by 
surprise,  November  4,  1576.  They  laid  five  hundred  houses 
in  ashes,  murdered  five  thousand  of  the  inhabitants,  and 
completely  sacked  the  city.  Numbers  of  the  citizens  fled  to 
Frankfort  on  the  Maine,  which  they  enriched  by  the  intro- 
duction of  their  arts  and  manufactures. 

William  of  Orange,  meanwhile,  took  advantage  of  the 
absence  of  a  royal  stadtholder  and  of  the  universal  unpopu- 
larity of  the  Spaniards,  to  seize,  by  means  of  his  friends 
Lalaing  and  Glimes,  the  town  council  of  Brussels  that 
favored  the  Spaniards,  and  to  propose  a  union  of  all  the 
Netherlands  for  the  confirmation  of  peace,  the  equal  recog- 
nition of  both  confessions  of  faith,  and  the  expulsion  of  the 
Spaniards.  This  was  accomplished  by  the  pacification  of 
Ghent,  November  8,  1576.  Ghent  was  the  centre  of  the 
movement,  having  for  aim  the  union  of  the  southern  to  the 
northern  provinces.  Mondragon  vainly  attempted  to  defend 
the  citadel  against  the  enthusiastic  populace,  and  finally  ca- 
pitulated. 

Don  Juan,  a  natural  son  of  Charles  V.  by  Barbara  Blum* 
berger,  the  daughter  of  a  citizen  of  Augsburg,  the  new  Span- 
ish stadtholder,  a  man  already  known  to  fame  by  the  great 
victory  of  Lepanto,  gained  by  him,  in  1571,  over  the  Turk- 
ish fleet,  arrived  at  this  conjuncture.  The  mutinous  soldiery 
instantly  submitted  to  him,  but  the  Estates  insisted  upon  his 
confirmation  of  the  pacification  of  Ghent  in  the  name  of  the 
king,  to  which  he  assented  and  marched  to  Brussels.  The 
Spanish  troops  were,  in  consequence  of  this  peace,  sent  out 
of  the  country,  Don  Juan  dissembling  his  real  projects,  and 
yielding  to  every  demand  with  the  view  of  weakening  the 
influence  of  the  Prince  of  Orange,  of  limiting  him  to  Holland 
and  Seeland,  and  of  reconciling  the  southern  provinces  to 
Spain.  Several  of  the  nobles  were  jealous  of  William  of 
Orange,  among  others,  the  duke  of  Aerschot,  who,  as  gov- 
ernor of  Flanders,  garrisoned  the  citadel  of  Ghent  in  Don 


956  THE    HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

Juan's  name,  and  secretly  corresponded  with  him.  Don 
Juan  also  broke  his  word,  secretly  quitted  Brussels,  threw 
himself  into  the  fortified  castle  of  Namur,  and  recalled  the 
Spanish  troops.  The  Estates,  indignant  at  this  act  of  treach- 
ery, deprived  him  of  his  office,  and  called  William  of  Orange 
to  the  head  of  affairs,  but  that  prince,  conscious  of  the  jeal- 
ousy with  which  he  was  beheld  by  the  rest  of  the  grandees, 
and  less  intent  upon  his  personal  aggrandizement  than  de- 
sirous of  the  welfare  of  the  country,  ceded  his  right  in  favor 
of  the  Archduke  Matthias,  the  second  son  of  Maximilian 
II.,  by  whom  the  Netherlands  might  once  more  be  united 
with  Germany,  and  who,  moreover,  appeared  far  from  dis- 
inclined to  advance  the  cause  of  the  Reformation.  Matthias 
was  received  with  open  arms  by  the  German  party,  and  the 
foreign  and  Spanish  faction  completely  succumbed  on  the 
capture  of  the  citadel  of  Ghent  by  the  enraged  populace,  Oc- 
tober 28,  1577.  The  government  of  this  city  became  a  pure 
democracy.  Iconoclasm  and  the  assassination  of  Catholic 
priests  recommenced,  and  a  violent  feud  was  carried  on  with 
the  Walloon  nobility,  the  zealous  supporters  of  Catholicism. 
These  events  were  beheld  with  great  uneasiness  by  Mat- 
thias and  the  Prince  of  Orange,  whose  efforts  were  solely 
directed  to  the  union  of  all  the  Netherlands,  whether  Catho- 
lic or  Reformed,  under  a  German  prince  against  Spain.  Wil- 
liam visited  Ghent  in  person,  for  the  purpose  of  preaching 
reason  to  the  Calvinists  and  of  renewing  the  article  concern- 
ing religious  toleration  contained  in  the  Pacification  of  Ghent. 
Soon  after  this,  in  the  February  of  1578,  the  Dutch  army 
under  Matthias  and  Orange  was,  while  attempting  to  take 
Don  Juan's  camp  at  Gemblours  by  storm,  defeated  by  the 
Spanish,  principally  owing  to  the  bravery  and  military  science 
of  the  young  Duke  Alexander  of  Parma,  the  son  of  Margaret. 
This  misfortune  again  bred  dissension  and  disunion  among 
the  Dutch;  Matthias  lost  courage,  and  endeavored  by  his 
promises  to  induce  the  Catholics  to  abandon  the  Spaniards, 
while  the  citizens  of  Ghent,  with  increased  insolence,  again 
attacked  monasteries  and  churches,  committed  crucifixes  and 


WAR    OF   LIBERATION   IN   NETHERLANDS  957 

pictures  of  the  saints  to  the  flames,  and  burned  six  Minorites, 
accused  of  favoring  the  enemy,  alive.  The  French,  with  cus- 
tomary perfidy,  now  attempted  to  turn  the  intestine  dissen- 
sions of  the  Dutch  to  advantage,  and  Francis,  Duke  d'Alen- 
con,  the  brother  of  the  French  monarch,  Henry  III.,  offered 
aid,  in  the  hope  of  seizing  the  government  of  the  Nether- 
lands. Elizabeth,  queen  of  England,  made  a  futile  attempt 
to  assist  the  Reformers  by  sending  large  sums  of  money  to 
the  Pfalzgraf,  John  Casimir,  whom  she  commissioned  to 
raise  troops  for  the  Prince  of  Orange;  but  the  Pfalzgraf, 
actuated  by  jealousy  of  the  fame  of  that  prince,  joined  the 
demagogues  of  Ghent.  Alencon,  rejected  by  every  party, 
withdrew  from  the  country,  and,  in  revenge,  allowed  the 
French  soldiery,  several  thousands  in  number,  raised  for  this 
expedition,  to  join  the  Walloons,  who,  under  the  name  of 
malcontents  or  beadsmen,  had  just  commenced  a  bitter  war 
against  the  people  of  Ghent,  who,  under  their  leader,  Ry- 
hove,  gained  the  upper  hand,  took  Bruges,  and  required  the 
united  efforts  of  the  Prince  of  Orange  and  of  Davidson,  the 
English  ambassador,  to  keep  within  bounds.  Don  Juan  ex- 
pired at  this  period,  in  1578,  and  the  Dutch,  had  harmony 
subsisted  among  them,  might  easily  have  seized  this  oppor- 
tunity, during  the  confusion  that  consequently  ensued  in  the 
Spanish  camp,  to  expel  the  duke  of  Parma.  The  bigotry  of 
the  people  of  Ghent  long  rendered  every  attempt  at  reconcili- 
ation between  them,  the  Walloons,  and  the  rest  of  the  Catho- 
lics, abortive,  and  it  was  not  until  William  of  Orange  again 
appeared  in  person  at  Ghent  that  a  religious  convention  was 
agreed  to  and  peace  was  once  more  restored,  December  16, 
1578. 

The  moment  for  action  had,  however,  passed.  The  duke 
of  Parma  had  already  taken  a  firm  footing  in  the  southern 
provinces,  and,  aided  by  the  implacable  Walloons,  was  stead- 
ily advancing.  Matthias  and  the  German  Catholics  tottered 
on  the  brink  of  destruction.  The  return  of  the  Catholic  priests 
to  Ghent  was  a  signal  for  a  fresh  popular  outbreak,  and  the 
treaty,  so  lately  concluded,  was  infringed.     The  northern 


958  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

provinces,  resolute  in  the  defence  of  their  liberties,  kept  aloof 
from  these  dissensions,  and,  on  the  22d  January,  1579,  sub- 
scribed to  the  Union  of  Utrecht,  renounced  all  allegiance  to 
Spain,  and  founded  a  united  republic,  consisting  of  seven 
free  states,  Guelders,  Holland,  Seeland,  Zutphen,  Friesland, 
Oberyssel,  and  Groningen,  the  states-general  of  Holland, 
over  which  William  of  Orange  was  placed  as  stadtholder- 
general.  This  step  had  been  strongly  advised  by  Elizabeth 
of  England,  as  a  means  of  raising  a  strong  bulwark  on  the 
mouths  of  the  Ehine  against  both  France  and  Spain.  The 
Dutch  declaration  of  independence,  like  that  of  the  Swiss 
confederation,  contained  the  preamble  that  by  this  step  Hol- 
land had  no  intention  to  separate  herself  from  the  holy  Ro- 
man empire.  The  aid  demanded  by  both  the  Dutch  and  the 
Swiss  against  foreign  aggression  had  been  refused,  owing  to 
the  egotism  of  the  princes  and  the  mean  jealousy  of  the 
cities.  The  emperor  wanted  the  spirit  to  act  with  decision; 
his  brother,  Matthias,  entered  the  country  and  quitted  it 
with  equal  secrecy.  The  Lutherans  refused  all  fellowship 
with  the  followers  of  Calvm. 

The  Prince  of  Parma,  a  man  distinguished  both  as  a 
warrior  and  as  a  statesman,  formed  a  coalition  with  the 
Walloons,  with  the  discontented  nobility,  even  gained  over 
William's  friend,  the  influential  Lalaing,  and  commenced 
operations  without  delay.  Dunkirk  was  taken  within  six 
days;  Maestricht  was  stormed,  the  inhabitants  were  put  to 
the  sword,  and  the  city  was  reduced  to  ruins.  Herzogen- 
busch  and  Mechlin  fell  by  stratagem.  The  underhand  sys- 
tem of  seduction  pursued  by  this  prince  was  opposed  by  an 
open  manifesto  on  the  part  of  the  stadtholder  of  Holland,  in 
which  the  revolt  of  the  provinces  against  their  legitimate 
sovereign  was  justified,  on  the  grounds  that  the  people  were 
not  for  the  prince  but  that  the  prince  was  for  the  people,  and 
that  Philip  had  injured,  not  benefited  his  subjects.  This 
manifesto  was  answered  by  another  on  the  part  of  Philip 
II.,  in  which,  without  touching  upon  the  just  complaints  of 
the  people,  he  ascribed  the  revolt  of  the  Netherlands  to  tke 


WAR    OF   LIBERATION   IN    NETHERLANDS  959 

intrigues  of  William  of  Orange,  who  had  wickedly  seduced 
his  happy  subjects  from  their  allegiance.  He,  at  the  same 
time,  set  a  price  of  twenty-five  thousand  ducats  on  the  head 
of  this  arch- rebel,  and  promised  to  bestow  a  patent  of  nobil- 
ity on  his  assassin. 

William  of  Orange  for  a  third  time  visited  Ghent,  in 
1580,  and  appeased  the  civil  broils.  Ghent  and  Bruges  sub- 
scribed to  the  Union  of  Utrecht.  Matthias  had  voluntarily 
retired;  and  William,  in  order  to  raise  a  fresh  enemy  to  the 
rear  of  Parma,  who  continued  rapidly  advancing,  advised 
the  election  of  a  French  prince  to  the  stadtholdership. 
Alencon  instantly  hastened  into  the  country,  and  delayed 
the  duke's  progress  by  the  siege  of  Cambray.  The  Span- 
ish manifesto  had  not,  meanwhile,  vainly  appealed  to  the 
basest  passions  of  the  human  heart.  A  Frenchman  named 
Jauregui,  ambitious  of  the  promised  guerdon,  shot  the  Prince 
of  Orange  in  the  head,  in  the  March  of  1581.  The  wound, 
although  dangerous,  was  not  mortal. 

The  Prince  of  Parma,  favored  by  the  state  of  inactivity 
to  which  William  was  reduced  in  consequence  of  his  wound, 
redoubled  his  efforts,  took  Tournay  and  Oudenarde,  and  was 
even  more  successful  by  intrigue  than  by  force  of  arms.  The 
French  were  equally  obnoxious  to  both  the  German  and  Span- 
ish factions,  and  Alencon  was  compelled  to  retire  in  1581. 
Parma,  meanwhile,  skilfully  took  advantage  of  the  national 
dislike  of  the  Germans  to  the  French  to  pave  the  way  to  a 
reconciliation  with  Spain,  and  William  of  Orange,  on  his  re- 
covery, perceived  with  alarm  the  inclination  of  the  southern 
provinces  to  accede  to  his  proposals  for  the  sake  of  peace. 
His  faction  in  Ghent  was  defeated,  in  1583,  but  the  treason 
of  Hembyze,  the  head  of  the  Spanish  party,  who  offered  to 
deliver  up  the  city  to  Parma,  being  discovered,  the  Orange 
faction  was  recalled,  the  treaty  concluded  at  Tournay  be- 
tween Ghent  and  Parma  annulled,  and  the  duke's  letters 
were,  by  way  of  answer,  publicly  burned.  Bruges,  insti- 
gated by  the  Duke  von  Aerschot,  opened  her  gates  to  the 
Spaniards. 


960  THE    HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

Orange,  true  to  his  motto,  "calm  in  the  midst  of  storms," 
still  hoped  for  success,  but  scarcely  had  he  recovered  from 
the  effects  of  his  wound  than  a  second  assassin  was  sent  by 
the  Spanish  monarch.  Balthasar  Gerard  presented  himself 
as  a  suppliant  before  him  and  received  a  handsome  present, 
in  return  for  which  he  lodged  three  balls  in  his  body.  "O 
God,  have  mercy  upon  me,  and  upon  this  poor  nation!" 
were  the  last  words  of  the  dying  prince.  This  deed  of  hor- 
ror took  place  the  17th  July,  1584.  His  last  wife,  Anne  de 
Coligny,  had  seen  her  murdered  father,  the  celebrated  ad- 
miral, and  her  first  husband,  Teligny,  expire  in  her  arms. 
Gerard  was  quartered,  but  Philip  II.,  in  imitation  of  the 
pope,  who,  on  receiving  the  news  of  the  murder  of  the 
Huguenots  on  St.  Bartholomew's  night,  ordered  public  re- 
joicings, ennobled  his  family,  and  bestowed  upon  it  the  title 
of  "destroyer  of  tyrants." 

The  perfidious  Hembyze,  who,  although  in  his  seventieth 
year,  had  just  married  a  young  woman,  was,  as  if  in  expia- 
tion of  this  base  assassination,  almost  at  the  same  time,  Au- 
gust 4,  beheaded  at  Ghent  as  a  traitor  to  his  country.  The 
Orange  faction  in  the  city  was,  nevertheless,  compelled  to 
submit  to  the  duke  and  to  comply  with  the  general  desire  for 
tranquillity  and  peace  in  1584.  Parma  prohibited  the  Cal- 
vinistic  form  of  worship,  threw  four  hundred  of  the  citizens 
into  prison,  closed  the  academies  and  printing-presses,  and 
established  the  Jesuits  in  the  city.  The  house  of  Hembyze 
was  converted  into  a  Jesuit  college.  Brussels  and  Antwerp 
were  taken,  after  sustaining  a  lengthy  siege. 

The  southern  Netherlands  were  thus  lost  to  the  Reforma- 
tion and  to  liberty,  and,  by  their  separation  from  the  north- 
ern provinces,  gave  rise  to  that  unnatural  distinction  between 
nations  similar  in  descent  that  still  keeps  Holland  and  Bel- 
gium so  widely  apart. 


WAR    OF    LIBERATION   IN   NETHERLANDS  961 


CCII.    The  Republic  of  Holland 

Peace  was,  on  the  death  of  the  Prince  of  Orange,  offered 
by  the  duke  of  Parma  to  Holland,  by  whom  it  was  steadily 
rejected  and  Spain  was  declared  a  faithless  friend,  whom  she 
would  oppose  to  the  last  drop  of  her  heart's  blood.  Fortune, 
meanwhile,  favored  Parma.  Maurice,  William's  son,  an  in- 
experienced youth,  had  been  raised  by  the  grateful  people  to 
the  stadtholdership,  and  Leicester,  the  English  envoy,  had, 
by  his  incapacity  and  arrogance,  rendered  himself  obnoxious 
to  the  Dutch,  whom  he  would  willingly  have  reduced  be- 
neath the  British  sceptre.  The  declining  power  of  the  Re- 
formers was,  nevertheless,  renovated  by  the  destruction  of 
the  invincible  Armada,  which,  shattered  by  a  storm,  was 
completely  annihilated  by  the  Dutch  and  English  ships  un- 
der the  admirals  Howard  and  Drake, '  in  1588.  This  suc- 
cess animated  the  Dutch  with  fresh  courage,  and  Parma, 
compelled  to  raise  the  siege  of  Bergen-op-Zoom,  which  had 
for  some  time  resisted  his  efforts,  fell  ill  with  chagrin.  The 
castle  of  Bleyenbek  yielded  to  the  Dutch  in  1589.  Breda 
was  taken  and  sacked  by  Maurice,  who  defeated  the  Span- 
iards under  Verdugo  at  Caeworden,  freed  Groningen  from 
her  tyrannical  governor,  the  Count  von  Bennenburg,  and 
took  Nimwegen. 

The  war  dragged  slowly  on.  Philip  II.  again  had  re- 
course to  intrigue,  and  restoring  Philip  William,  Maurice's 
elder  brother,  whom  he  had  long  detained  a  prisoner  in  Spain, 
to  liberty,  sent  him  unexpectedly  back  to  the  Netherlands, 
in  the  hope  of  dissensions  breaking  out  between  the  breth- 
ren; but  Philip  William,  although  refused  admission  into 
the  country  by  the  Dutch,  who  feared  the  disturbance  of 
their  republic,  nobly  rejected  Philip's  proposals,  and  even 
preferred  renouncing  his  right  to  his  Burgundian  estates  to 
holding  them  on  dishonorable  terms  1595. 

1  This  officer  brought  the  first  potatoes  from  America. 


962  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

The  duke  of  Parma  expired  in  1596,  and  was  succeeded 
by  another  Spanish  stadtholder,  Albert,  also  a  son  of  the  em- 
peror Maximilian  II.  Albert  had  married  Philip's  daughter, 
Isabella.  Peace  was  equally  desired  by  all  parties  in  the 
Netherlands,  and  remained  alone  unconcluded  from  want  of 
unanimity.  The  war  was,  meanwhile,  mechanically  carried 
on,  principally  by  foreigners,  French,  English,  and  eastern 
Germans;  and  it  was  in  this  school  that  most  of  the  great 
military  characters  during  the  ensuing  wars  acquired  their 
science  and  skill.  The  most  remarkable  event  during  this 
war  was  the  siege  of  Ostend,  which  Albert,  or  rather  his 
wife,  Isabella,  "the  only  man  in  her  family,"  resolved  to 
gain  at  whatever  price;  she  even  vowed  not  to  change  her 
undergarment  until  success  had  crowned  her  endeavors. 
The  siege  commenced  in  1602,  and  was  at  length  termi- 
nated by  Spinola,  in  1605;  the  city  had,  during  this  inter- 
val, been  gradually  reduced  to  a  heap  of  ruins,  and  one  hun- 
dred thousand  men  had  fallen  on  both  sides.  The  tint  known 
as  Isabella-color  was  so  named  from  the  hue  acquired  by  the 
garment  of  the  Spanish  princess. 

A  truce  for  twelve  years  was  at  length  concluded  in 
1609,  but  war  broke  out  afresh  on  the  commencement  of  the 
religious  war  that  convulsed  the  whole  of  Germany.  The 
seven  northern  provinces  retained  their  freedom,  the  south- 
ern ones  remained  Spanish.  The  latter  lost  all  their  inhabi- 
tants favorable  to  the  Reformation,  and  with  them  their  pros- 
perity and  civil  liberties.  The  cities  stood  desert;  the  people 
were  rendered  savage  by  military  rule,  or  steeped  in  igno- 
rance by  the  Jesuits;  and  in  this  melancholy  manner  was 
Germany  deprived  of  her  strongest  bulwark,  of  the  most 
blooming  and  the  freest  of  her  provinces.  Holland,  on  the 
other  hand,  blessed  with  liberty,  quickly  rose  to  a  high  de- 
gree of  prosperity.  Her  population,  swelled  by  the  Calvin- 
istic  emigrants  from  the  Spanish  Netherlands,  from  France 
and  Germany,  became  too  numerous  for  the  land,  and  whole 
families,  as  in  China,  dw*lt  in  boats  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
larger  towns.    The  over-population  of  the  country  gave  rise, 


WAR    OF  LIBERATION  IN   NETHERLANDS  963 

in  1607,  to  that  Herculean  enterprise,  the  draining  of  the 
Bremstersee,  by  which  a  large  tract  of  land  was  reclaimed, 
and  to  the  excellent  Waterstaat  or  system  of  canals  and  dikes, 
which  prevented  the  entrance  of  the  sea,  and  was  superin- 
tended by  Deichgrafs.  The  navy  created  by  the  Water 
Geuses  furnished  means  for  the  extension  of  the  commer- 
cial relations  of  the  republic.  Amsterdam  became  the  great 
emporium  of  Dutch  commerce  and  the  outlet  for  the  internal 
produce  of  Holland.  The  trade  long  carried  on  between  the 
merchants  of  Spain  and  of  Holland  had  secretly  continued 
during  the  war.  The  traffic  of  the  former  with  the  East 
Indies  and  America  was  carried  on  with  the  capital  of  the 
Dutch,  who,  out  of  their  share  of  the  profit,  armed  their 
countrymen  against  the  Spanish  troops.  This  traffic  being 
discovered  and  strictly  prohibited  by  Philip  II.,  the  Dutch 
carried  it  on  on  their  own  account,  and  speedily  rivalled  the 
merchants  of  Spain  in  every  part  of  the  globe.  In  1583, 
Huygen  van  Linschoten  made  the  first  voyage  to  the  East 
Indies,  whither,  in  1595,  Cornelius  Houtmann  sailed  with 
a  small  fleet  and  planted  the  banner  of  the  republic  in  Java, 
where  it  still  flutters  in  the  breeze.  In  1596,  the  united  fleets 
of  Holland  and  England  took  the  rich  commercial  town  of 
Cadiz  and  burned  it  to  the  ground.  During  the  same  year 
Linschoten  and  Heemskerk  set  out  on  an  expedition  for  the 
discovery  of  a  northeastern  passage  to  China.  The  Dutch 
had  long  maintained  commercial  relations  with  Russia,  and 
Archangel  had  been  founded  by  Adrian  Kryt;  the  enter- 
prise, nevertheless,  failed,  the  ships  being  icebound  in  the 
Frozen  Ocean,  and  Heemskerk  compelled  to  winter  on  Nova 
Zembla.  In  1599,  Stephen  van  der  Hagen  opened  the  spice 
trade  with  the  islands  of  Molucca;  in  1601,  van  Neck,  the 
tea  trade  with  China,  and  van  Spilbergen,  the  cinnamon 
trade  with  Ceylon.  An  incessant  struggle  for  the  empire 
of  the  sea  was  meanwhile  carried  on  between  Holland,  Spain, 
and  Portugal,  the  two  latter  of  which  had  already  colonized 
parts  of  the  New  World.  The  English  Channel  was,  in  1605, 
blockaded  by  Houtain,  the  Dutch  admiral;  no  Spanish  ship 


964  THE    HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

was  permitted  to  reach  the  coast  of  Holland,  and  all  the 
Spaniards  who  fell  into  his  hands  were  drowned.  The 
Dutch  fleets  incessantly  harassed  the  Spanish  coasts.  In 
1608,  Verhoeven  settled  in  Calicut,  on  the  Coromandel  coast. 
One  of  his  ships  visited  Japan  in  1609,  and  discovered  a 
Dutch  sailor,  named  Adam,  who  had  been  cast  on  the  shore, 
living  there  in  great  repute.  A  connection  with  this  country 
was  formed  at  a  later  period  by  van  den  Broek,  who,  aware 
of  the  great  importance  of  the  island  of  Java  as  the  centre 
of  the  Dutch  possessions  in  the  East  Indies,  erected,  in 
1618,  the  fortress  of  Batavia,  which  speedily  grew  into  an 
extensive  city.  In  1614,  van  Noordt  followed  on  the  track 
of  the  Spaniards  in  the  Southern  Ocean,  and,  in  1615,  Schou- 
ten  sailed  round  the  southern  point  of  America,  named  by 
him  Cape  Horn,  in  honor  of  his  native  town,  Hoorn.  New 
Zealand  was  discovered  about  the  same  time  and  named 
after  the  province  of  Seeland.  Hudson,  in  1610,  had  also 
discovered  the  extreme  north  of  America,  and  the  bay  named 
after  him.  The  English,  jealous  of  his  success,  seized  and 
starved  him  to  death.  Numbers  of  his  countrymen  followed 
in  his  track,  and,  in  1614,  added  the  whale  fishery  to  those 
of  codfish  and  herrings,  which  were  almost  exclusively  in 
their  hands. 

The  mean  jealousy  of  the  Hanse  towns  met  with  its  fit- 
ting reward,  their  commerce  gradually  declining  as  that  of 
Holland  rose.  Their  prohibition  of  English  manufactures 
caused  the  expulsion  of  all  the  Hanseatics  from  England  and 
the  instalment  of  the  Dutch  in  their  stead  in  1598. 

Maurice  inherited  little  of  the  noble  sincerity  of  his  father, 
and  viewed  with  jealous  eyes  the  despotic  power  wielded  by 
the  neighboring  princes.  The  peace,  to  which  he  had  been 
forced  to  accede  by  Henry  IV.  of  France,  the  friend  of  re- 
form, the  commercial  prosperity,  the  increase  of  the  navy, 
the  colonial  and  civil  wealth,  and  the  republican  spirit  of 
Holland,  were  alike  distasteful  to  him,  but,  compelled  to 
relinquish  the  hope  of  executing  his  tyrannical  projects 
by  force  of  arms,  he  concealed  them  beneath  a  mask  of  re- 


WAR    OF   LIBERATION   IN   NETHERLANDS  965 

ligion,  and  made  use  of  means  the  best  calculated,  in  those 
fanatical  times,  to  work  upon  the  multitude. 

At  the  new  university  of  Leyden,  Justus  Lipsius  had 
gained  great  fame  for  learning,  and  Gomarus,  the  Calvinist, 
for  orthodoxy  and  zeal.  Another  deeply-learned  and  talented 
preacher,  Arminius  (Harmsen),  who  had  successfully  com- 
bated the  doctrine  of  predestination,  being  also  appointed  to 
a  professor's  chair  at  Leyden,  Gomarus,  who,  like  the  rest 
of  his  Calvinistic  brethren  of  that  period,  professed  ultra- 
liberalism,  but  acted  with  a  bigotry  equalling  that  of  the 
Catholics  and  Lutherans,  instantly  raised  a  cry  of  heresy. 
The  attempts  made  by  Hugo  Grotius,  the  most  eminent 
scholar  and  statesman  of  the  age,  to  reconcile  the  adverse 
parties,  were  rendered  futile  by  political  intrigue.  Maurice, 
instigated  by  resentment  against  Olden  Barneveldt,  the  most 
popular  and  influential  of  the  statesmen  of  Holland,  declared 
in  favor  of  Gomarus.1  The  Arminians  defended  themselves 
in  a  remonstrance  to  the  states-general,  whence  they  gained 
the  name  of  Remonstrants.  The  Gomarists,  supported  by 
Maurice,  however,  gained  the  victory,  and  Olden  Barneveldt, 
Hugo  Grotius,  with  their  friends  Hogerbeet  and  Ledenberg, 
were,  at  Maurice's  command,  arrested  in  the  name  of  the 
states-general,  which  were  in  utter  ignorance  of  the  affair. 
The  Remostrants,  fearful  of  sharing  the  fate  of  their  lead- 
ers, fled  the  country.  The  town  councils  and  the  states- 
general  were  biased  by  the  creatures  of  the  prince,  and 
the  prisoners  were  judged  by  a  criminal  court  acting  solely 
under  his  influence.  By  the  great  synod  convoked  at  Dord- 
recht as  a  cloak  for  his  crime,  the  Remonstrants  were  con- 
demned unheard  as  abominable  heretics,  while  Maurice  loaded 
the  Gomarists  with  favors  (1619).  Ledenberg,  in  order  to  es- 
cape the  rack,  stabbed  himself  with  a  knife.  Olden  Barne- 
veldt, an  old  man  of  seventy-two,  the  most  faithful  servant 


1  His  ignorance  was  such  that  he,  on  one  occasion,  demanded  of  an  Arminian 
"how  lie  could  uphold  such  nonsense  as  a  belief  in  predestination?"  and  on 
bein^r  told  that  was  the  doctrine  of  the  Gomarists  and  not  of  the  Arminians, 
pretended  to  disbelieve  the  assertion. 


966  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

of  the  republic,  the  founder  of  its  real  grandeur,  of  its 
navy,  was  condemned  to  death,  as  a  disturber  of  the  unity 
of  the  state  and  of  the  church  of  God.  He  addressed  the 
people  from  the  scaffold  in  the  following  words,  "Fellow 
citizens,  believe  me,  I  am  no  traitor  to  my  country.  A 
patriot  have  I  lived  and  a  patriot  will  I  die."  Maurice,  by 
whom  the  people  had  been  deceived  with  false  reports  against 
their  only  true  friends,  pretended  to  mourn  for  his  death  and 
to  lament  the  treason  that  had  led  to  his  condemnation,  in 
1619.  Hogerbeet  and  Grotius  were  condemned  to  perpetual 
imprisonment.  The  latter  escaped  from  the  castle  of  Lowen- 
stein,  in  which  he  was  immured,  by  means  of  his  wife,  Maria, 
von  Reigersberg,  who  concealed  and  had  him  carried  away 
in  a  chest  of  books. 

Popular  disturbances  ensued.  Several  insurrections  were 
quelled  by  force;  the  secret  assemblage  of  the  Remonstrants 
was  strictly  prohibited  and  the  censorship  of  the  press  estab- 
lished. The  two  sons  of  Olden  Barneveldt  conspired  against 
the  life  of  Maurice,  were  discovered  and  executed,  1623. 
Maurice  expired  in  1625.  Conscious  of  the  inevitable  dis- 
covery of  the  artifice  with  which  he  had  studiously  slandered 
his  victims  and  deceived  the  Dutch,  and  of  the  infamy  at- 
tached to  his  name,  he  enjoined  his  brother,  and  successor, 
Frederick,  with  his  dying  breath,  to  recall  the  Remonstrants. 

CCHI.    Rudolph  the  Second 

The  rest  of  Germany  beheld  the  great  struggle  in  the 
Netherlands  with  almost  supine  indifference.  The  destruc- 
tion of  the  Calvinistic  Dutch  was  not  unwillingly  beheld  by 
the  Lutherans.  The  demand  for  assistance  addressed,  in 
1570,  by  the  Dutch  to  the  diet  at  Worms  received  for  reply 
that  Spain  justly  punished  them  as  rebels  against'the  prin- 
ciple of  cujus  regio,  ejus  religio.  The  Lutheran  princes, 
either  sunk  in  luxury  and  vice,  or  mere  adepts  in  intrigue, 
shared  the  peaceful  inclinations  of  their  Catholic  neighbors. 
The  moderation  of  the  emperor,  Maximilian  II.,  also  greatly 


WAR    OF   LIBERATION    IN   NETHERLANDS  967 

contributed  to  the  maintenance  of  tranquillity,  but  still  far 
more  so  the  cunning  policy  with  which  the  Jesuits  secretly 
encouraged  the  internal  dissensions  of  the  Reformers  while 
watching  for  a  fitting  opportunity  again  to  act  on  the 
offensive. 

Maximilian  II.  had,  shortly  before  his  death,  been  elected 
king  of  Poland,  and  great  might  have  been  the  result  had  he 
been  endowed  with  higher  energies.  The  Jagellons  became 
extinct  with  Sigismund  Augustus  in  1572.  The  capricious 
Polish  nobles,  worked  upon  by  the  agents  of  the  French  mon- 
arch, raised  Henry  of  Anjou  to  the  throne,  which  that  prince 
speedily  and  voluntarily  renounced  for  that  of  France.  Max- 
imilian was  elected  king  by  one  faction,  and  Stephen  Bathori, 
prince  of  Transylvania,  by  another.  Maximilian  ceded  his 
claim  and  expired  shortly  afterward,  in  1575.  The  Jesuits 
were  accused  of  having  taken  him  off  by  poison,  through 
jealousy  of  his  inclination  to  favor  the  Reformation.  The 
beautiful  Philippina  Welser  is  also  said  to  have  been  mur- 
dered in  the  castle  of  Am  bras  by  opening  her  veins  in  a 
bath  in  1576. 

Maximilian  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  Rudolph  II.,  a  sec- 
ond Frederick  III.  This  prince  devoted  his  whole  thoughts 
to  his  horses,  of  which  he  possessed  an  immense  number, 
although  he  never  mounted  them;  to  the  collection  of  natu- 
ral curiosities  and  pictures;  to  the  study  of  alchemy  and 
astrology,  in  which  he  was  assisted  by  the  Dane,  Tycho  de 
Brahe,  and  by  Kepler, '  the  great  German  astronomer.  Tycho 
is  said  to  have  drawn  his  horoscope  and  to  have  foretold  his 

1  This  extraordinary  man,  to  whom  we  are  indebted  for  the  discovery  of  the 
laws  which  regulate  the  movements  of  the  planetary  bodies,  their  ellipticity,  etc., 
was  born  in  1571,  at  Wicl,  in  Swabia.  While  a  boy,  tending  sheep,  he  passed 
his  nights  in  the  lields,  and  by  his  observation  acquired  his  first  knowledge  of 
astronomy.  His  discovery  was  condemned  by  the  Tubingen  university  as  con- 
trary to  the  Bible.  lie  was  about  to  destroy  his  work,  when  an  asylum  was 
granted  to  him  at  Graetz,  which  he  afterward  quitted  for  the  imperial  court.  He 
was,  notwithstanding  his  Lutheran  principles,  tolerated  by  the  Jesuits,  who 
knew  how  to  value  scientific  knowledge.  He  was  solely  persecuted  in  his  native 
country,  where  he  with  difficulty  saved  his  mother  from  being  burned  as  a  witch. 
Ho  was  also  in  the  service  of  the  celebrated  General  Wallcnstein.  Ho  died  in 
1630,  at  Ratisbon. 


968  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

death  by  the  hand  of  his  own  son,  in  consequence  of  which 
he  forswore  marriage  and  lived  in  constant  seclusion.  He 
was  subject  to  fits  of  fury  resembling  madness.  His  sleep- 
ing apartment  was  strongly  barred  like  a  prison,  so  great 
was  his  apprehension  of  a  violent  death. 

.Rudolph  bestowed  no  attention  upon  the  empire;  he, 
nevertheless,  permitted  Melchior  Clesel,  bishop  of  Vienna, 
and  the  Jesuits,  to  attempt  to  bring  about  a  reaction  in  his 
hereditary  provinces  against  the  Protestants,  who,  deeming 
themselves  secure  under  his  father's  sceptre,  had,  contrary 
to  agreement,  erected  churches  on  spots  not  immediately  be- 
longing to  the  privileged  nobility.  In  1579,  every  unprivi- 
leged cure  was  seized  and  the  public  instruction  placed  exclu- 
sively in  the  hands  of  the  Catholics,  a  proceeding  extremely 
mild  when  compared  with  the  merciless  extirpation  of  the 
Calvinists  in  Saxony,  of  the  Lutherans  in  the  Pfalz,  etc. 

The  great  victories  of  the  Dutch,  the  decided  inclination 
of  Elizabeth,  queen  of  England,  and  of  Henry  IV".  of  France, 
to  Calvinism,  suddenly  raised  that  sect  to  a  high  degree  of 
influence,  which  was  further  increased  by  the  defection  of 
several  of  the  princes  from  Lutheranism  through  disgust  at 
the  doctrines  taught  by  the  clergy.  Immediately  after  the 
triumph  gained  by  the  Lutherans  by  means  of  the  concordat, 
the  only  Calvinistic  prince  remaining  in  Germany,  the  Pfalz- 
graf,  John  Casimir,  brother  to  Louis,  the  Lutheran  elector, 
had,  at  a  congress  held  at  Frankfort  on  the  Maine,  in  1577, 
demanded  aid  from  England  and  France.  He  had  himself 
levied  a  troop  of  German  auxiliaries  for  the  French  Hugue- 
nots. On  the  death  of  His  brother,  he  undertook  the  guar- 
dianship of  his  infant  nephew,  Frederick  IV.,  in  1585;  all 
the  Lutherans  were  instantly  expelled  the  Pfalz  and  Ihe 
tenets  of  Calvin  imposed  upon  the  people. 

It  was  about  this  period  that  Gebhard,  elector  of  Cologne, 
born  Count  Truchsess  (dapifer)  von  Waldburg,  a  young, 
gentle-hearted,  but  somewhat  thoughtless  man,  embraced 
Calvinism.  His  equally  worldly-minded  predecessor,  Sa- 
lentin   von   Ysenburg,    had,  in   1577,  after  persecuting  the 


WAR    OF   LIBERATION   IN   NETHERLANDS  969 

Lutherans,  suddenly  renounced  his  office  and  wedded  a 
Countess  von  Ahremberg,  an  example  Gebhard  was  inclined 
to  follow,  but  without  relinquishing  his  position.  He  had 
already  become  notorious  for  easy  morality,  when,  one  day, 
looking  from  his  balcony,  he  beheld,  in  a  passing  procession, 
the  Countess  Agnes  von  Mansfeld,  canoness  of  the  noble 
convent  of  Gerrisheim  near  Dusseldorf,  the  most  beautiful 
woman  of  the  day,  and  becoming  violently  enamored,  called 
her  into  his  presence,  and,  by  his  united  charms  of  rank, 
youth,  and  beauty,  quickly  inspired  her  with  a  correspond- 
ing passion.  The  Lutheran  Counts  von  Mansfeld,  speedily 
informed  of  the  connection  between  their  sister  and  the  arch- 
bishop, hastened  to  Bonn,  where  they  were  holding  court  to- 
gether, and  compelled  the  archbishop  to  restore  their  sister's 
honor  by  a  formal  marriage.  The  Calvinists  in  the  Pfalz, 
in  Holland,  and  France,  however,  promising  him  their  aid 
on  condition  of  his  reforming  the  whole  of  the  Colognese 
territory,  and  inspiring  him  with  the  hope  of  rendering  his 
possessions  hereditary  in  his  family,  he  embraced  the  tenets 
of  Calvin,  and  consequently  deprived  himself  of  the  support 
of  the  strict  Lutherans.  He  was  himself  completely  devoid 
of  energy.  The  bishop  of  his  cathedral,  Frederick  von  Saxon- 
Lauenburg,  who  grasped  at  the  archiepiscopal  mitre,  almost 
the  entire  chapter  and  the  citizens  of  Cologne  declared 
against  him.  His  predecessor,  Salentin  von  Ysenburg,  ac- 
tuated by  jealousy,  also  opposed  him.  On  the  day  on  which 
Gebhard  solemnized  his  wedding  at  Bonn,  the  bishop  took 
possession  of  the  city  of  Kaiserswerth,  February  2,  1583. 
The  majority  of  the  people  were  against  him.  The  pope  put 
him  under  an  interdict;  the  emperor  and  the  empire  were 
bound  by  the  ecclesiastical  proviso;  the  Lutherans  refused 
their  aid  through  jealousy  of  the  Calvinists.  Ernest,  duke 
of  Bavaria,  bishop  of  Liege  and  Freysingen,  was  elected 
archbishop  in  his  stead,  and  invaded  his  territory.  The 
Pfalzgraf,  John  Casimir,  to  whom  he  had  in  his  terror  mort- 
gaged the  whole  of  the  electorate  of  Cologne,  was  too  deeply 
engaged  in  the  expulsion  of  the  Lutherans  from  the  Pfalz  to 

Germany.     Vol.  III.— 3 


970  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

lend  him  the  requisite  aid,  and  left  him  to  his  fate.  The 
whole  of  the  electorate  was  speedily  in  the  hands  of  the  Ba- 
varian duke,  and  Gebhard  took  refuge  in  Zutphen,  whence 
he  escaped  to  William  of  Orange.  Agnes  secretly  visited 
England  and  applied  for  assistance  to  Essex,  the  queen's 
favorite,  but  was  instantly  expelled  the  country  by  the  jeal- 
ous queen,  who  refused  to  see  her.  Gebhard' s  adherents, 
meanwhile,  ravaged  the  country  around  Neuss,  but  were 
forced  to  capitulate  by  the  Spanish  under  the  duke  of  Parma, 
to  whom  Ernest  had  turned  for  aid.  The  cause  of  the  ex- 
pelled archbishop  now  became  hopeless,  and,  in  1589,  he 
withdrew  with  Agnes,  to  whom  he  ever  remained  faithful, 
to  Strasburg,  where  he  had  formerly  held  the  office  of  dea- 
con. He  died  in  1601,  leaving  no  issue.  Agnes  survived 
him;  the  period  of  her  death  and  her  burial-place  are 
unknown. 

Ernest  of  Cologne,  who  became  at  the  same  time  bishop 
of  Minister,  Liege,  and  Hildesheim,  favored  the  Jesuits,  and 
persecuted  the  Protestants  with  the  greatest  rigor  in  Aix-la- 
Chapelle.  The  Catholic  league,  meanwhile,  incessantly  car- 
ried on  hostilities  against  the  Huguenots,  whose  leader, 
Henry  of  Bourbon,  the  first  of  that  line,  mounted  the  throne 
of  France  in  1589.  This  monarch  was  greatly  seconded  in 
his  war  with  the  league  by  the  Eeformed  Swiss,  under  Louis 
von  Erlach,  and  by  the  Calvinistic  prince,  Christian  von 
Anhalt.  The  Landgrave,  Maurice  of  Hesse-Cassel,  openly 
embraced  Calvinism  in  1592.  The  separation  of  Hessian 
Darmstadt  from  Cassel  took  place  in  1614.  It  was  brought 
about  by  the  Lutheran  prince,  Louis  of  Darmstadt,  Maurice's 
cousin,  in  direct  opposition  to  the  will  of  the  provincial  Es- 
tates. Maurice'  was  one  of  the  most  eminent  among  the 
princes  of  his  time,  witty  and  learned,  deeply  versed  in 
classic  literature  and  art,  well  acquainted  with  modern  and 
foreign  cultivation  and  customs,  and  not  the  less  zealous  for 
the  improvement  of  Germany.     The  Margrave,  Ernest  Fred- 

1  This  prince  was  the  first  inventor  of  the  telegraph,  an  invention  that  did 
not  come  into  use  until  long  after. 


WAR    OF   LIBERATION   IN   NETHERLANDS  971 

erick  of  Baden-Durlach,  became  a  convert  to  Calvin,  and 
imposed  his  tenets  on  his  Lutheran  subjects.  He  died  of 
apoplexy,  in  1604,  when  marching. upon  Pforzheim,  whose 
citizens  had  resisted  his  tyranny.  John  Sigismund,  elector 
of  Brandenburg,  also  embraced  Calvinism,  the  faith  of  the 
citizens  of  Juliers,  Cleve,  and  Berg,  his  subjects  by  inheri- 
tance. He  incurred  great  unpopularity  by  his  toleration  of 
Lutheranism  in  Brandenburg. 

The  Catholic  party  had  gradually  gained  internal 
strength.  Paul  IV.  commenced  the  restoration;  Pius  IV. 
gave  a  new  constitution  to  the  Catholic  world  by  the 
resolutions  of  the  council  of  Trent;  Pius  V.  exchanged 
the  shepherd's  staff  for  the  fagot  and  the  sword,  and,  by 
his  example,  sanctified  the  cruelties  perpetrated  by  Philip 
II.;  Gregory  XIII. ,  the  representative  of  Jesuit  learning, 
put  the  Protestants  to  shame  with  his  improved  Calendar, 
which  was  published  in  1584,  and  violently  protested  against 
at  the  imperial  diet  by  the  Lutherans,  who  preferred  an 
erroneous  computation  of  time  to  anything,  however  accu- 
rate, proceeding  from  a  pope;  and  finally,  Sixtus  V.  again 
displayed  the  whole  pomp  of  the  triumphant  church  from 
1585  to  1590. 

The  Jesuits  had  rapidly  spread  over  the  whole  of  the 
Catholic  world,  and,  solely  opposed  by  the  Dominicans,  jeal- 
ous of  the  power  they  had  hitherto  possessed,  had  placed  all 
beneath  their  rule.  The  Franciscans,  so  influential  over  the 
people,  were  replaced  by  another  Jesuitical  body  of  begging 
monks,  drawn  from  their  ranks,  the  Capuchins,  who  were 
commissioned  to  work  upon  the  lower,  as  the  Jesuits  did 
upon  the  higher,  classes.  Permanent  nunciatures,  as  ad- 
vanced posts  noting  the  movements  of  the  enemy  and  of  the 
confederation,  were  stationed,  in  1570,  at  Luzerne,  in  1588 
at  Brussels,  Cologne,  and  Vienna. 

The  Reformers  had  entirely  lost  sight  of  the  ancient 
church  in  the  midst  of  their  internal  dissensions,  nor  was 
it  until  the  publication  of  Cardinal  Bellarmin's  subtle  criti- 
cism on  the  Reformation  in  1581,  and  that  of  Pope  Gregory's 


972  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

celebrated  bull  "  in  ccena  Domini  "  in  1584,  on  the  one  side, 
and  of  the  history  of  the  order  of  Jesus  by  the  renegade 
Jesuit,  Hasenmuller,  in  which  he  lays  bare  all  its  evil  prac- 
tices and  exaggerates  its  crimes,  in  1586,  on  the  other  side, 
that  polemics  again  raged  and  the  press  vented  its  venom  on 
both  parties. 

The  bishoprics  continued  a  material  object  of  discord; 
those  to  the  north  of  Germany  had  irrecoverably  fallen  into 
the  hands  of  the  princes  of  Brandenburg,  Brunswick,  Meck- 
lenburg, and  Saxon- Lauenburg.  The  possession  of  others 
was  a  matter  of  uncertainty.  In  Upper  Germany  and  in 
Switzerland,  the  Catholics  greatly  increased  in  strength  and 
daring,  and  the  confederates,  instigated  by  the  Jesuits,  took 
up  arms  against  one  another.  In  1586,  the  Catholic  cantons, 
influenced  by  Louis  Pfyffers  of  Lucerne,  the  head  of  the 
Catholics,  surnamed  the  Swiss  king,  concluded  the  golden  or 
Borromean  league  with  St.  Charles  Borromeo  for  the  exter- 
mination of  heretics.  This  league  raged  so  fearfully  in  Italy 
that  numbers  of  Reformers  fled  thence  to  Zurich;  hence  the 
celebrated  Zurich  names  of  Pestalozzi,  Orelli,  etc. 

The  favor  lavished  by  Stephen  Bathori,  king  of  Poland, 
upon  the  Catholic  party,  afforded  the  Jesuits  an  opportunity 
to  spread  themselves  over  Livonia  and  Polish-Prussia.  They 
were,  however,  driven  out  of  Riga  by  the  Lutheran  citizens 
in  1587,  and  out  of  Dantzig  in  a  similar  manner  in  1606. 

Clement  VIII. ,  meanwhile,  intent  upon  extending  his 
temporal  sway  in  Italy,  had,  on  the  death  of  Alfonso,  the 
last  Marquis  of  the  house  of  Este,  in  1595,  seized  Ferrara 
and  forcibly  annexed  that  duchy  to  the  dominions  of  the 
church.  His  successor,  Paul  V.,  zealously  persecuted  the 
heretics,  and,  during  his  long  reign,  from  1605  to  1621, 
incessantly  encouraged,  discord  and  dissension. 

Bavaria  displayed  the  greatest  zeal  in  the  Catholic 
cause.  Baden- Durlach,  whose  Margrave,  Philip,  had  fallen 
at  Montoncourt  fighting  for  the  Huguenots,  had  been  re- 
catholicized  by  Duke  Albert,  the  guardian  of  Philip's  infant 
eon.     Albert's  successors,  William  (1579),  and  Maximilian 


WAR    OF   LIBERATION   IN   NETHERLANDS  973 

(1598),  befriended  the  Jesuits.  In  1570,  all  the  wealthy  in- 
habitants of  Munich  took  refuge  in  the  Lutheran  imperial 
cities.  These  proceedings  were  far  from  indifferent  to  the 
Calvinists,  the  most  courageous  among  the  Reformers. 
Frederick  IV.,  elector  of  the  Pfalz,  exhorted  the  Lutherans 
to  make  common  cause  with  the  rest  of  the  Reformers,  but 
was  solely  listened  to  by  Wurtemberg  and  the  Margraves  of 
Franconia,  who  entered  into  a  union  with  him  at  Anhausen 
in  1608,  which  was  joined,  in  1609,  by  Brandenburg  and 
opposed  by  Maximilian  of  Bavaria,  who  convoked  the  Cath- 
olic princes,  with  whom  he  concluded  a  holy  alliance.  Party 
hatred  was  still  further  inflamed,  in  1610,  on  the  death  of 
the  last  duke  of  Juliers,  Cleve,  Berg,  Mark,  and  Ravensberg, 
when  those  splendid  countries  fell  to  the  nearest  of  kin,  John 
Sigismund,  elector  of  Brandenburg,  and  Wolfgang  William, 
Pfalzgraf  of  Neuburg,  both  Reformed  princes.  The  majority 
of  the  people  was  also  Reformed.  The  Catholic  party,  led 
by  Bavaria,  had,  in  the  hope  of  frustrating  the  expectations 
of  their  antagonists,  compelled  Jacobea  of  Baden,'  who  was 
educated  at  Munich,  to  bestow  her  hand  upon  the  imbecile 
duke,  John  William,  1585.  This  scheme,  however,  failed; 
the  duke  went  completely  mad,  and  Jacobea  remained 
childless.  The  government  was  seized  by  his  sister,  Sibyl- 
la, an  elderly  maiden,  totally  devoid  of  personal  graces, 
who,  jealous  of  Jacobea's  beauty  and  aided  by  the  Catholic 
party,  set  the  now  useless  victim  aside.  Jacobea  was,  under 
a  false  pretext,  seized,  accused  of  sorcery,  and  strangled  in 
prison,  after  undergoing  a  variety  of  tortures.  Antonia  of 
Lorraine  was  the  next  victim  bestowed  upon  the  duke,  in 
the  hope  of  raising  a  progeny  in  the  Catholic  branch,  but 
also  remaining  childless,  she  was  sent  back  to  Lorraine,  and 
Sibylla,  in  her  forty-ninth  year,  wedded  Charles,  Margrave 
of  Burgau.     Her  hopes  of  issue  were  also  frustrated,  and, 

1  Her  portrait  is  still  to  be  seen  at  Dusseldorf.  She  was  uncommonly  beauti- 
ful and  captivating.  She  loved  a  Count  von  Manderscheid,  who,  on  the  news 
of  her  marriage,  became  insane.  The  pope  sent  his  benediction  on  the  marriage 
of  this  lovely  woman  with  the  imbecile  duke,  and  presented  the  unhappy  bride 
with  a  golden  rose. 


974  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

on  the  death  of  John  William,  in  1609,  the  whole  of  the 
rich  inheritance  fell  to  the  .Reformed  branch,  which,  aided 
by  France,  finally  succeeded  in  expelling  Sibylla's  faction, 
which  was  supported  by  the  Spanish  Netherlands. 

The  united  princes,  meanwhile,  took  the  field,  but  again 
laid  down  arms  on  the  death  of  the  elector  of  the  Pfalz  and 
the  murder  of  Henry  of  Navarre  by  Kavaillac,  the  tool  of 
the  Jesuits.  Brandenburg  and  Neuburg  remained  in  peace- 
able possession  of  the  Juliers-Cleve  inheritance,  until  a  quar- 
rel breaking  out  between  them,  the  Pfalzgraf  embraced 
Catholicism  and  called  the  League  and  the  Spaniards  to 
his  aid.  The  matter  was,  nevertheless,  settled  by  negotia- 
tion, Brandenburg  taking  Cleve,  Mark,  and  Ravensberg; 
Neuburg,  Juliers  and  Berg,  in  1614.  They  were,  however, 
still  destined  not  to  hold  the  lands  in  peace,  the  emperor 
attempting  to  place  them  under  sequestration  as  prop- 
erty lapsed  to  the  crown;  the  Dutch  and  Spaniards  again 
interfered  in  the  dispute  that  ensued,  and  shortly  afterward 
the  great  war  broke  out.  John  Sigismund  succeeded  the 
imbecile  duke,  Frederick  Albert,  on  the  throne  of  Prussia 
in  1614,  where,  during  that  stormy  period,  the  Branden- 
burgs  with  difficulty  secured  their  footing. 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR  975 


PART    XVIII 

THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR 


CCIV.     Great  Religious  Disturbances  in  Austria — 
Defeat  of  the  Bohemians 

THE  projects  laid  by  the  emperor  Maximilian  II.  were, 
even  during  his  lifetime,  frustrated  by  his  brother, 
Charles,  the  ultra-Catholic  archduke  in  Styria,  Ca- 
rinthia,  and  Carniola.  This  energetic  man,  who,  by  his 
settlement  of  the  military  colonies  in  Croatia,  in  the  heart 
of  which  he  erected,  in  1580,  the  metropolis  of  Carlstadt, 
had  greatly  served  the  empire,  violently  opposed  the  Protes- 
tants, established  the  Jesuits  at  Graetz,  and  by  his  virulent 
persecution  of  the  Lutheran  communes  in  the  mountain  dis- 
tricts drove  them  to  rebel  m  1573.  The  peasantry  through- 
out Styria  and  Carniola  revolted,  but  were  reduced  to  sub- 
mission by  the  Uzkokes,1  wild  Slavonian  robbers,  called  for 
that  purpose  from  the  mountains  of  Dalmatia. 

The  violent  abolition  of  the  religious  liberty  of  the  privi- 
leged cities  by  Rudolph  II.  called  forth  an  energetic  remon- 
strance from  the  whole  of  the  provincial  Estates,  that  drew 
from  him  the  grant  of  four  privileged  churches  at  Greetz, 
Judenburg,  Clagenfurt,  and  Laibach,  in  1578,  which  were, 
nevertheless,  destroyed  by  the  Archduke  Charles,  at  whose 
command  twelve  thousand  German  Bibles  and  other  Lu- 
theran books  were  burned  by  the  public  executioner  at 
Grsetz,  in  1579.  The  Lutheran  preachers  were  gradually  su- 
perseded by  Catholic  clergy  in  all  the  cities,  the  chartered 
towns  not  excepted,  and  the  citizens  were  compelled  to  recant. 

1  These  barbarians  afterward  greatly  annoyed  his  son,  the  emperor  Ferdinand 
II.,  who,  at  the  entreaty  of  Venice,  interdicted  their  piracy  in  the  Adriatic. 


976  THE    HISTORY    OF    GERMANY 

The  privileges  of  the  nobility  were  still  held  sacred,  but  the 
principle,  cujus  regio,  ejus  religio,  was  in  some  measure 
even  applied  to  them,  no  Lutheran  lord  being  permitted  to 
take  a  Catholic  peasant  into  his  service  unless  born  on  his 
estates.  The  Estates,  perceiving  their  demands  unheeded 
by  their  sovereign,  laid  their  complaints,  in  1582,  before 
the  diet  of  the  empire,  in  the  hope  of  being  protected  by  the 
Lutheran  princes.  But  here  also  their  hopes  were  frustrated 
by  the  pitiless  axiom,  cujus  regio,  ejus  religio.  The  Jesuits, 
emboldened  by  this  defeat,  redoubled  their  attacks;  numbers 
of  Lutheran  preachers  were  incarcerated,  but  were  partly 
restored  to  liberty  by  the  enraged  peasantry.  The  move- 
ment gradually  increased,  and,  in  1588,  the  archduke  was 
merely  saved  from  assassination  at  Judenburg  by  the  mag- 
nanimity of  a  Lutheran  preacher.  An  insurrection  broke 
out  simultaneously  in  the  archbishopric  of  Salzburg.  Tu- 
multuous meetings,  the  violent  seizure  of  the  preachers  and 
the  armed  opposition  of  the  peasantry,  were  annually  renewed 
in  Austria  from  1594. 

The  persecution  of  the  Austrian  Protestants  raged  with 
redoubled  violence  on  the  accession  of  the  Archduke  Fer- 
dinand in  1596.  His  Jesuitical  preceptors  had  carefully 
prepared  him  from  his  earliest  childhood  for  the  part  they 
intended  him  to  perform,  and  he  had  solemnly  vowed  at  the 
shrine  of  the  Virgin  at  Loretto  to  extirpate  heresy  from  his 
dominions.  The  actions  and  principles  of  his  uncle,  Philip 
II.,  the  model  on  which  he  formed  himself,  were  merciful  in 
comparison  with  him.  Unwarlike,  nay,  effeminate  in  his  hab- 
its, ever  surrounded  by  Jesuits  and  women,  he,  nevertheless, 
possessed  a  bigoted  obstinacy  of  character  that  naught  had 
power  to  soften,  and,  while  tranquilly  residing  in  Vienna, 
willing  tools  were  easily  found  to  execute  his  horrid  projects. 
His  first  act,  in  answer  to  the  renewed  petitions  of  the  Estates 
for  religious  liberty,  was  the  erection  of  gallows  throughout 
the  country  for  the  evangelical  preachers,  the  demolition  of 
their  churches,  nay,  the  desecration  of  the  churchyards  by 
the  disinterment  of  the  dead.     In  Laibach,  where  the  most 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR  977 

resolute  resistance  was  offered,  the  pastors  were  torn  from 
their  pulpits,  the  citizens  that  refused  to  recant  expelled,  and 
their  goods  confiscated.  The  opposition  of  the  Estates  was 
weakened  by  the  dissolution  of  their  union,  those  of  Upper 
and  Lower  Austria,  Styria,  Carinthia,  and  Carniola  being 
compelled  to  hold  separate  assemblies.  The  Estates,  refused 
aid  by  their  brethren  in  belief,  were  driven  by  necessity  to 
demand  assistance  from  their  foreign  neighbors.  Venice 
was  too  Catholic,  Hungary  too  deeply  occupied  with  her  in- 
ternal affaira.  and  the  war  with  the  Turks,  to  listen  to  their 
entreaties.  Bethlen  Gabor,  Prince  of  Transylvania,  took  ad- 
vantage of  the  gradual  decadence  of  the  Turkish  empire,  on 
the  one  hand,  and  of  the  religious  war  in  Germany,  on  the 
other,  to  found  an  independent  power  in  Hungary.  The 
German  Transylvanians  had  been  converted  to  Lutheranism 
in  1533,  and  were,  at  this  period,  in  close  alliance  with  the 
German  Lutherans.  Rudolph  II. ,  with  the  view  of  recon- 
verting them  to  Catholicism,  instigated  the  Hungarians 
against  them,  and  the  Saxons  were  actually  declared  in  the 
Hungarian  diet,  in  1590,  serfs  to  the  Hungarians,  there 
being  no  noblemen  among  them.  The  national  Graf,  Hut- 
ter,  however,  rose  in  their  defence,  and  openly  told  the  mag- 
nates before  the  whole  assembly  that  "Labor  was  nobler 
than  robbery,"  and  succeeded  in  repealing  their  decision. 
The  Transylvanian  Saxons,  as  a  protection  against  the 
Jesuits,  formed  a  union,  in  1613,  and  bound  themselves 
by  oath  to  stand  up  as  one  man  in  defence  of  their  political 
freedom  and  of  the  Augsburg  Confession,  never  to  accept 
of  nobility,  and  ever  to  preserve  their  equality,  the  condition 
of  their  freedom. 

Thus,  Tyrol  alone  excepted,  ail  the  hereditary  possessions 
of  the  house  of  Habsburg  had  favored  the  Reformation,  and 
were,  in  point  of  fact,  Reformed.  Catholicism  was,  never- 
theless, reimposed,  by  means  of  political  intrigue,  on  the 
whole  of  this  immense  population. 

The  archdukes,  less  influenced  by  the  discord  that  pre- 
vailed throughout  the  empire  than  by  the  disturbances  in 


978  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

the  hereditary  provinces,  which  caused  the  Habsburgs  to 
totter  on  the  throne,  resolved,  in  1606,  to  install  Matthias 
in  the  place  of  his  spiritless  brother,  the  emperor  Rudolph. 
This  event  afforded  a  glimmer  of  hope  to  the  oppressed  Prot- 
estants. Matthias  speedily  found  himself  at  the  head  of  an 
army,  and  compelled  the  emperor  to  cede  Hungary  and 
Austria.  Rudolph,  shaken  from  his  slumbers,  hastened 
unexpectedly  to  Prague,  where,  sacrificing  the  principle 
on  which  he  had  hitherto  governed,  the  exclusive  rule  of 
the  Catholic  form  of  worship,  to  his  enmity  toward  his 
brother,  he  fully  restored  the  privileges  anciently  enjoyed 
by  the  Utraquists,  and,  in  1609,  promulgated  the  famous 
letter  patent,  the  palladium  of  Bohemia,  by  which  her  polit- 
ical and  religious  liberty  was  confirmed.  The  storm  had, 
however,  no  sooner  passed  than,  regretting  his  generosity, 
he  allowed  his  cousin,  the  Archduke  Leopold,  bishop  of 
Passau,  whom,  notwithstanding  his  priestly  office,  he  des- 
tined for  his  successor  on  the  throne,  to  assemble  a  consid- 
erable body  of  troops  at  Passau,  invade  and  devastate  Bo- 
hemia, and  take  possession  of  the  Kleine  Seite  of  Prague. 
The  Bohemians  under  Matthias,  Count  von  Thurn,  made  a 
gallant  defence,  and  several  bloody  engagements  took  place. 
The  rage  of  the  Bohemians  was,  however,  chiefly  directed 
against  the  Jesuits,  who  were  accused  of  having  instigated 
this  attack  upon  their  liberties,  and  Rudolph,  deeply  sus- 
pected by  the  citizens  of  Prague  of  participating  in  the  plot, 
was  kept  prisoner  by  them  until  Leopold  voluntarily  retreated 
on  the  news  of  the  approach  of  Matthias  from  Hungary.  Ru- 
dolph was  compelled  to  abdicate  the  throne  of  Bohemia  in 
favor  of  his  brother,  whose  coronation  was  solemnized  amid 
the  joyful  acclamations  of  the  people,  on  whom  he  lavished 
fresh  privileges.  "Ungrateful  Prague!"  exclaimed  the  de- 
posed monarch,  as  he  looked  down  upon  the  gorgeous  city 
from  his  palace  window.  "Ungrateful  Prague!  to  me  dost 
thou  owe  thy  wondrous  beauty,  and  thus  hast  thou  repaid 
my  benefits.  May  the  vengeance  of  Heaven  strike  thee>  and 
my  curse  light  upon  thee  and  the  whole  of  Bohemia!" 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'   WAR  979 

The  Bohemians,  enchanted  with  Matthias's  liberality, 
prudently  sought  to  draw  a  real  advantage  from,  and  to 
strengthen  their  constitution  by,  his  deceptive  concessions. 
The  fallacy  of  their  hopes  is  clearly  proved  by  the  fact  of 
Ferdinand's  having  annihilated  in  the  mountains  every  trace 
of  the  liberty  so  deceitfully  planted  by  his  uncles  and  sover- 
eigns in  Bohemia.  Shortly  before  the  Christmas  of  the  same 
year,  1610,  the  Passau  troops  made  a  second  incursion  into 
Upper  Austria  and  cruelly  harassed  the  Protestant  inhabi- 
tants. ' 

~J '  Matthias  succeeded  to  the  imperial  crown  on  the  death 
of  Rudolph  II.  in  1612,  and,  unable  to  recall  past  events, 
peaceably  withdrew  from  public  life,  committing  the  govern- 
ment to  his  nephew,  Ferdinand,  whom  he  caused  to  be  pro- 
claimed king  of  Bohemia,  and  who  was  destined  to  discover 
the  little  accordance  between  the  system  of  oppression  pur- 
sued by  him  in  the  mountains  and  the  letters  patent  issued 
by  Rudolph.  Ferdinand  treated  his  uncle  with  the  basest 
ingratitude,  depriving  him  of  the  society  of  his  old  friend, 
Cardinal  Clesel,  and  treating  him  with  the  deepest  contempt. 
The  poor  old  man  was  at  length  carried  off  by  gout  in 
1617.  Clesel  had  drawn  upon  himself  the  ill-will  of  the 
youthful  tyrant,  by  expressing  a  hope  that  Bohemia  might 
be  treated  with  lenity,  to  which  Ferdinand  replied,  "Better 
a  desert  than  a  country  full  of  heretics."  The  only  descend- 
ants of  the  house  of  flabsburg  still  remaining  in  Germany 
were  Ferdinand  II.,  his  two  brothers,  Leopold,  bishop  of 
Passau,  and  Charles,  bishop  of  Breslau.  The  throne  of 
Spain  was,  in  1621,  mounted  by  Philip  IV.  (grandson  to 
Philip  II.),  whose  brother,  Ferdinand,  became  a  cardinal 
and  the  stadtholder  of  the  Netherlands. 

The  arrival  of  Ferdinand  with  his  Jesuitical  counsellors 
at  Prague  filled  Bohemia  with  dread,  nor  was  it  diminished 
by  his  hypocritical  oath  to  hold  the  letters  patent  granted  by 
Rudolph  sacred ;  for  how  could  a  Jesuit  be  bound  by  an  oath  ? 
The  principles  on  which  he  acted  had  been  clearly  shown  by 
his  behavior  at  Graetz  and  Laibach.     The  Jesuits  no  longer 


980  THE    HISTORY    OF    GERMANY 

concealed  their  hopes,  and  the  world  was  inundated  with 
pamphlets,  describing  the  measures  to  be  taken  for  the  ex- 
tirpation of  heresy  throughout  Europe,  and  for  the  restora- 
tion of  the  only  true  church. 

Ferdinand  speedily  quitted  Bohemia, leaving  the  govern- 
ment in  the  hands  of  Slawata  (a  man  who,  for  a  wealthy 
bride,  had  renounced  Protestantism,  and  who  cruelly  perse- 
cuted his  former  brethren)  and  Martinitz,  who  sought  to  in- 
snare  the  people  and  systematically  to  suppress  their  rights. 
A  strict  censorship  was  established;  Jesuitical  works  were 
alone  unmutilated.  Eeligious  liberty,  although  legally  pos- 
sessed by  the  nobility  alone,  had,  by  right  of  custom,  ex- 
tended to  the  Protestant  citizens,  more  especially  since  the 
grant  of  the  letters  patent  by  the  emperor,  Rudolph  II. ;  but 
they  no  sooner  ventured  to  erect  new  churches  at  Braunau 
and  Klostergrab  than  an  order  for  their  demolition  was 
issued  by  Ferdinand,  who,  treating  the  representations  of 
the  Estates  with  silent  contempt,  their  long-suppressed  dis- 
content broke  forth,  and,  at  the  instigation  of  Count  Thurn, 
they  flung  Slawata  and  Martinitz,  after  loading  them  with 
bitter  reproaches,  together  with  their  secretary,  Fabricius, 
according  to  old  Bohemian  custom,  out  of  the  window  of 
the  council-house  on  the  Radschin.  They  fell  thirty-live 
yards.  Martinitz  and  the  secretary'  escaped  unhurt,  being 
cast  upon  a  heap  of  litter  and  old  papers;  Slawata  was  dread- 
fully shattered,  and  was  carried  into  a  neighboring  house, 
that  of  a  Princess  Schwarzenberg,  where  he  remained  un- 
molested. This  event  occurred  May  23,  1618,  and  from  this 
day  dates  the  commencement  of  the  thirty  years'  war. 

The  first  act  of  the  Bohemian  Estates  under  the  direction 
of  Count  Thurn  was  the  expulsion  of  the  Jesuits,  in  which 
they  were  imitated  by  the  rest  of  the  hereditary  provinces, 
Silesia  under  the  rule  of  John  George,  duke  of  Brandenburg- 
Jaegerndorf,  Moravia  under  its  principal  leader,  the  Baron 

1  He  afterward  received  the  title  of  Hohenfall.  lie  is  said  to  have  fallen 
upon  Martinitz,  and,  notwithstanding  the  horror  of  the  moment,  to  have  politely 
asked  pardon  for  his  involuntary  rudeness. 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR  981 

Frederick  von  Teuffenbacb,  Austria,  whose  chief  represen- 
tative was  Erasmus  von  Tschernembl,  and  Hungary  under 
Bethlen  Gabor  (Gabriel  Bathory).  A  list  of  grievances  was 
sent  to  Vienna,  and  religious  liberty  was  demanded  as  the 
condition  of  their  continued  recognition  of  Ferdinand's  au- 
thority. 

Ferdinand,  without  deigning  a  reply,  instantly  raised  two 
small  bodies  of  troops,  which  he  intrusted  to  the  command 
of  Dampierre  and  Bouquoi,  the  former  a  Frenchman,  the 
latter  a  Spaniard,  while  he  continued  to  levy  men  in  Italy, 
Spain,  and  the  Netherlands;  but  Thurn,  marching  at  the 
head  of  the  Bohemians  upon  Vienna,  he  avoided  falling 
into  his  hands  by  going  to  Frankfort  on  the  Maine,  1619, 
where  the  Lutheran  princes,  gained  over  by  his  Jesuitical 
artifices,  elected  and  crowned  him  emperor  of  Germany. 
Every  trace  of  the  scruples  formerly  raised  against  the 
election  of  Charles  V.  and  of  Ferdinand  I.  had  vanished. 

The  Estates  of  Bohemia,  Silesia,  Moravia,  Hungary, 
Austria,  Styria,  Carinthia,  and  Carniola,  abandoned  as 
usual  in  the  moment  of  need  by  their  Protestant  brethren, 
now  closely  confederated,  and  took  Count  Ernest  von  Mans- 
feld,  who  had  served  with  distinction  in  the  Netherlands, 
with  fourteen  thousand  German  mercenaries,  into  their  ser- 
vice. Bouquoi,  after  defeating  Mansfeld  at  Pilsen,  marched 
into  Hungary  against  Bethlen  Gabor,  while  Dampierre, 
worsted  in  Moravia  by  Teufi'enbach,  retired  upon  the  Dan- 
ube, where  the  Upper  Austrians,  under  Stahremberg,  lay 
in  wait  for  the  emperor  on  his  return  from  Frankfort.  Fer- 
dinand, however,  avoided  them  by  passing  through  Styria 
to  Vienna.  That  city  was  instantly  besieged  by  Thurn  and 
Bethlen  Gabor,  and  the  Viennese,  who,  notwithstanding  the 
practices  of  the  Jesuits,  were  still  evangelically  inclined, 
stormed  the  palace  and  demanded  a  formal  grant  of  the 
free  exercise  of  their  religion.  At  this  moment  Dampierre's 
cavalry  entered  the  palace-yard.  The  citizens  withdrew, 
and  the  Bohemians  and  Hungarians,  weakened  by  famine 
and  sickness,  and  threatened  to  the  rear  by  a  fresh  enemy 


982  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

raised  against  them  by  Ferdinand's  diplomatic  arts,  also 
speedily  retreated.  The  Cossacks  (not  those  of  the  Ukraine), 
the  rudest  of  the  Lithuanian  tribes,  were  invited  into  Austria 
by  the  emperor  for  the  purpose  of  converting  the  people  by 
fire,  sword,  and  pillage.  A  Spanish  army  under  Verdugo 
also  crossed  the  Alps  and  defeated  Mansfeld  at  Langen- 
Loys.  The  Bohemians  and  Hungarians  were,  meanwhile, 
victorious  over  the  Poles,  and,  in  the  midst  of  the  tumult  of 
war,  elected  Frederick  V.,  elector  of  the  Pfalz,  king  of  Bo- 
hemia, and  Bethlen  Gabor  king  of  Hungary,  in  the  stead  of 
the  emperor,  1620. 

The  behavior  of  the  German  princes  during  the  war  in 
Austria  was  more  deeply  than  ever  marked  by  treachery 
and  weakness.  Never  has  a  great  period  produced  baser 
characters,  never  has  a  sacred  cause  found  more  unworthy 
champions.  The  projects  harbored  by  the  pope,  the  em- 
peror, Spain,  and  France,  for  the  complete  suppression  of 
the  Reformation,  were  well  known,  and  could  alone  be  frus- 
trated by  a  prompt  and  firm  coalition  on  the  part  of  the  Prot- 
estant princes.  George  William  of  Brandenburg,  John  George 
of  Saxony,  Louis  of  Darmstadt,  John  Frederick  of  Wurtem- 
berg,  and  the  Margrave,  Joachim  Ernest,  of  Brandenburg, 
bribed  by  personal  interest  or  actuated  by  cowardice  and  by 
jealousy  of  the  Pfalzgraf,  abandoned  their  brethren  to  their 
fate,  and  took  part  with  the  emperor.  Maximilian,  duke  of 
Bavaria,  who,  notwithstanding  his  youth,  was  at  the  head 
of  the  Catholic  League,  had,  through  jealousy  of  his  cousin 
the  Pfalzgraf,  sacrificed  the  brilliant  prospects  of  his  house, 
and  headed  the  Wittelsbach  against  the  Wittelsbach  in  a 
war  profitable  alone  to  the  Habsburg.  Conscious  of  this 
false  step,  he  endeavored,  although  the  ally  of  the  Habs- 
burg, to  curb  the  power  of  the  emperor,  and  to  retain  his 
position  as  the  head  of  Catholic  Germany.  For  this  purpose, 
he  long  delayed  advancing  to  his  aid,  until  actually  com- 
pelled, by  the  fear  of  losing  the  laurels  he  hoped  to  win,  to 
take  the  field  at  the  head  of  his  whole  force,  after  conclud- 
ing an  alliance  at  Wurzburg  with  his  brother  Ferdinand  in 


THE    THIRTY     YEARS     WAR  983 

Cologne,  and  Schweighart,  elector  of  Mayence,  in  which 
Lothar  of  Treves  and  Louis  of  Darmstadt  also  joined,  and 
after  protecting  his  rear  by  making  terms,  as  creditable  to 
him  as  a  statesman  as  they  were  scandalous  in  the  opposite 
party,  in  the  name  of  the  League  with  the  Union,  the  duke 
of  Wurtemberg  promising  to  discharge  the  troops  of  the 
Union,  Bavaria  on  her  part  undertaking  to  leave  the  Lu- 
theran and  Reformed  countries,  including  the  Pfalz,  Bo- 
hemia alone  excepted,  unharassed  by  the  League. 

Frederick,  elector  of  the  Pfalz,  a  young  and  ambitious 
man,  whose  projects  were  ever  seconded  by  his  wife,  Eliza- 
beth, a  zealous  Calvinist,  the  daughter  of  James  I.  of  Eng- 
land, had  placed  himself  without  difficulty,  owing  to  the 
supine  indifference  of  the  rest  of  the  united  princes,  at  the 
head  of  the  Union.  His  ineptitude  for  government  was, 
however,  speedily  discovered  by  the  Bohemians,  by  whom 
he  had  been  elected  king  and  received  with  the  greatest  en- 
thusiasm. Frederick  was  merely  fitted  for  parade,  and  was, 
perhaps,  the  most  incapable  of  the  reigning  princes  of  his 
time,  for  he  never  allowed  others  to  govern  in  his  name. 
The  Lutheran  princes,  jealous  of  the  increased  importance 
of  the  Pfalz,  and  inimical  to  him  on  account  of  his  Calvinis- 
tic  tenets,  abandoned  him.  His  introduction  of  the  French 
tongue  and  of  French  customs  and  fashions  into  his  court 
created  great  dissatisfaction  among  his  Bohemian  subjects, 
which  was  still  further  increased  by  his  encouragement  of 
the  attacks  made  from  the  pulpit  by  his  chaplain,  Scultetus, 
upon  the  Utraquists  and  Lutherans,  and  by  the  demolition 
of  tb<3  ornaments  still  remaining  in  the  churches  at  Prague. 
The  crucifixes  and  pictures  were  torn  down  and  destroyed. 
The  attempt  to  demolish  the  great  stone  crucifix  on  the 
bridge  over  the  Moldau  caused  a  revolt,  which  Thurn  was 
alone  able  to  quell.  Peace  was  restored,  but  Frederick  hud 
forfeited  the  affection  of  his  subjects.  Instead  of  attaching 
the  Bohemian  aristocracy  to  his  person,  he  showered  favors 
upon  two  poor  nobles,  distinguished  neither  by  their  talent: 
nor   by   their  characters,   Christian,   prince  of   Anhalt,  and 


984  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

George  Frederick,  Count  von  Hohenlohe,  by  whom  Count 
Mansfeld,  whose  birth  was  illegitimate,  was  treated  with 
such  marked  contempt  that  he  withdrew  with  his  troops 
from  the  royal  army.  The  terms  stipulated,  in  1620,  be- 
tween the  League  and  the  Union  also  deprived  Frederick  of 
the  aid  of  the  latter,  Bohemia  being  expressly  given  up  as 
a  pre}r  to  the  former.  His  alliance  with  Turkey,  moreover, 
greatly  contributed  to  increase  his  unpopularity  with  every 
party. 

While  the  Protestants  were  thus  weakened  by  their  own 
treachery  and  disunion,  the  Catholics  acted  with  redoubled 
vigor.  Spinola  marched  from  the  Netherlands  at  the  head 
of  twenty  thousand  men  and  systematically  plundered  the 
Pfalz.  The  cries  of  the  people  at  length  struck  upon  the 
dulled  sense  of  the  united  princes.  Wurtemberg  tremblingly 
demanded,  "Why  the  late  stipulation  was  thus  infringed?" 
and  remained  satisfied  with  the  reply  that  Spinola,  not  being 
included  in  the  League,  was  not  bound  to  keep  its  stipula- 
tions; and  the  Union  made  a  treaty  with  Spinola  at  Mayence, 
by  which  they  consented  to  his  remaining  in  the  Pfalz  on 
condition  of  the  neighboring  princes  being  left  undisturbed. 
Heidelberg,  Mannheim,  and  the  Frankenthal  were  defended 
by  the  troops  of  Frederick  Henry  of  Orange,  who  was  aban- 
doned by  the  rest  of  the  united  princes.  Maximilian  and  his 
field -marshal,  John  T'serclaes,1  Count  von  Tilly,  a  Dutch- 
man, who  had  served  under  Alba,  next  invaded  Upper  Aus- 
tria, with  a  force  of  thirty  thousand  men.  Linz  yielded;  the 
Estates  were  compelled  to  take  the  oath  of  fealty  to  the  duke 
as  the  emperor's  representative;  Tschernembl  fled  to  Ge- 
neva, where  he  died  in  want  in  1626.  The  mountain  peas- 
antry, enraged  at  the  capitulation  of  Linz  by  the  panic- 
struck  nobles,  took  up  arms,  but  were  unable  to  overtake 
the  duke,  who  had,  in  the  meantime,  entered  Bohemia,  where 
numbers  of  the  inhabitants  were,  on  account  of  their  deter- 
mined resistance,  cruelly  butchered. 

1  T'serclaes  signifies  Sir  Claus,  Sir  Nicolas. 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR  985 

Dampierre,  sacrificing  himself  for  the  emperor,  kept  Beth- 
len  Gabor  at  bay,  though  with  an  inferior  force,  but  was 
finally  defeated  and  slain  before  Presburg.  The  Hungarians 
poured  in  crowds  around  Vienna,  while  the  League,  joined 
by  Bouquoi,  Verdugo,  and  the  whole  of  the  imperial  iorces, 
left  Vienna  to  the  right  and  marched  straight  upon  Prague, 
where  the  king,  Frederick,  little  anticipated  battle.  Anhalt 
and  Hohenlohe  had  fixed  an  encampment  on  the  Weissen 
Berg,  famed  for  Zizka's  deeds  of  prowess;  Mansfeld  and  the 
flower  of  the  army  were  far  away  at  Pilsen,  and,  before  it 
was  possible  for  him  to  advance  to  the  relief  of  the  metrop- 
olis, the  enemy  unexpectedly  stormed  the  Weissen  Berg, 
October  29,  1620.  Christian  of  Anhalt  rushed  to  the  encoun- 
ter and  was  wounded;  the  Hungarian  auxiliaries  fled  and 
drew  the  Bohemians  in  their  train.  The  Moravians  made 
a  valiant  but  futile  resistance.  The  battle  rolled  onward  to 
the  gates  of  Prague,  where  the  confusion  was  still  further 
increased  by  the  panic  of  the  king.  Prague  was  well  forti- 
fied; the  troops  had,  after  suffering  a  trifling  loss,  entered 
the  walls;  an  immense  Hungarian  army  lay  around  Vienna; 
Mansfeld  was  at  Pilsen;  Upper  Austria  in  open  insurrection; 
four  thousand  men  and  ten  cannons,  left  in  the  hurry  of  the 
moment  on  the  Weissen  Berg,  comprised  the  whole  amount 
of  loss.  But  fear  had  paralyzed  the  senses  of  the  monarch. 
Instead  of,  like  the  Hussites,  intrenching  himself  behind  his 
fortifications  and  awaiting  the  arrival  of  his  friends,  he  yielded 
his  metropolis  without  a  blow,  merely  demanding  twenty -four 
hours  to  prepare  for  his  departure,  notwithstanding  which  he 
left  behind  him  his  crown  and  most  important  documents, 
the  whole  archive  of  the  Union,  which  fell  into  the  hands  of 
the  imperialists.  Frederick  fled  to  Breslau,  then  further, 
never  to  return.  One  winter  brought  his  reign  to  a  close, 
hence  he  received  the  sobriquet  of  the  winter- king. '  Thurn 
also  escaped. 

The  elector  of  Saxony,  who  had,  meanwhile,  occupied  the 

1  Cornea  palatums  palans  sine  comite.     He  was  pursued  with  satirical  songs 
and  caricatures. 


986  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

Lausitz  with  his  troops  and  had  taken  Bautzen  and  Zittau, 
now  expelled  the- fugitive  king  of  Bohemia  from  Silesia  and 
compelled  Breslau  to  do  him  homage  as  the  emperor's  repre- 
sentative. Frederick  took  refuge  in  Holland  with  his  con- 
sort, whom  the  elector  of  Brandenburg  had  unwillingly  per- 
mitted to  remain  at  Frankfort  on  the  Maine  until  after  the 
birth  of  her  son,  Prince  Maurice.  The  castle  of  Bhenen,  in 
Holland,  was  granted  as  a  residence  to  the  exiled  pair  by 
the  Prince  of  Orange. 

Mansfeld,  driven  from  Pilsen  by  Tilly,  entered  into  a  pre- 
tended negotiation  with  the  emperor,  who  vainly  attempted 
to  bribe  him  to  enter  into  his  service,  and  had  no  sooner  pro- 
vided himself,  by  pillaging  the  country  around  Tachau,  with 
horses,  ammunition  and  money,  than,  forcing  his  way  through 
Bamberg  and  Wurzburg,  he  escaped  the  imperialists  under 
Maximilian  and  General  Cordova,  who  had  been  left  by 
Spinola,  on  his  return  to  the  Netherlands,  in  the  Pfalz, 
where  he  had  wintered.  Tilly  vainly  pursued  the  fugi- 
tives; Mansfeld  passed  the  Rhine  and  fixed  himself  in  Al- 
sace and  Lorraine,  ready,  in  case  of  necessity,  to  retreat 
upon  Holland. 

Bethlen  Gabor,  driven  from  both  Vienna  and  Presburg 
by  Bouquoi,  was,  in  his  turn,  victorious  over  the  Austrian 
faction  under  Count  Palffy  in  Hungary,  and  was  reinforced 
by  Jaegerndorf,  who  again  took  the  field  in  Silesia.  Bouquoi 
fell  before  Neuhausel.  Mansfeld's  expulsion,  the  open  per- 
fidy of  the  Union,  and  the  threatening  aspect  of  Poland, 
however,  inclined  Bethlen  Gabor  to  make  terms  with  the 
emperor,  to  whom  he,  consequently,  resigned  the  Hungarian 
crown  on  condition  of  receiving  seven  districts  and  the  title 
of  prince  of  the  empire.  Jaegerndorf,  who  now  stood  un- 
aided and  alone,  was  compelled  to  dismiss  his  troops,  and 
the  Silesian  Estates  credulously  accepted  the  proffered 
mediation  of  the  elector  of  Saxony,  who  promised  to  pro- 
tect their  religious  liberty. 

Ferdinand's  apparent  lenity  greatly  facilitated  the  sub- 
jection of   Bohemia.      For  three   months  vengeance  slum- 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR  987 

beretl.  With  the  cold-blooded  hypocrisy  of  Alba,  his  mas- 
ter in  deceit,  he  patiently  waited  until  the  Bohemians,  lulled 
into  security,  had  retaken  their  peaceful  occupations,  and 
the  fugitives  had  regained  their  homes.  On  the  20th  of 
February,  1621,  the  storm  burst  forth.  All  the  popular 
leaders  who  had  not  escaped  were  arrested.  Thurn  was 
not  to  be  found,  but  his  friend,  Count  John  Andreas  von 
Schlick,  a  descendant  of  the  celebrated  chancellor,  to  whom 
the  Habsburgs  owed  so  much  of  their  grandeur,  was  deliv- 
ered by  the  perfidious  elector  of  Saxony,  to  whom  he  had 
fled  for  shelter,  to  the  headsman  of  Prague.  His  right  hand 
and  his  head  were  struck  off.  Twenty-four  nobles  were  be- 
headed, three  citizens  hanged,  etc.  Seven  hundred  and 
twenty-eight  of  the  nobility,  who  were  induced  by  a  prom- 
ise of  pardon  to  confess  their  participation  in  the  rebellion, 
were  deprived  of  their  estates.  Forty  million  dollars  were 
collected  by  confiscation  alone.  Five  hundred  noble  and 
thirty-six  thousand  citizen  families  emigrated.  Bohemia 
lost  the  whole  of  her  ancient  privileges.  The  letter  patent 
granted  by  Rudolph  was  destroyed  by  the  emperor's  own 
hands.  His  confessor,  the  Jesuit  Lamormain  (Lsemmer- 
mann),  searched  for  and  burned  all  heretical  works,  par- 
ticularly those  of  the  ancient  Hussites.  Nor  did  the  dead 
escape;  Kokizana's  remains  were  disinterred  and  burned; 
Zizka's  monument  and  every  visible  memorial  of  the  hero- 
ism of  Bohemia  were  destroyed.  Every  trace  of  religious 
liberty  was  annihilated,  and  the  emperor,  disregarding  his 
promise  to  the  elector  of  Saxony  in  regard  to  the  Luther- 
ans, declared  himself  bound  in  conscience  to  exterminate  all 
heretics.  Saxony,  for  form's  sake,  protested  against  this 
want  of  faith.  The  churches  throughout  Bohemia  were  re- 
consecrated by  the  Catholics;  the  Hussite  pastors,  who  failed 
m  making  their  escape,  fell  a  prey  to  the  savage  soldiery. 
The  peasantry  were  imprisoned  by  the  hundred  and  com- 
pelled by  famine  to  recant.  The  few  Catholic  nobles,  Sla- 
wata,  Martinitz,  Mittrovski,  Klenau,  Czeyka,  who  had  for- 
merly been  expelled  the  country,  took  a  fearful  revenge. 


988  THE    HISTORY    OF    GERMANY 

The  emigrants  were  the  most  fortunate  portion  of  the  popu- 
lation. At  Lissa,  the  citizens  set  fire  to  their  own  homes 
and  fled  into  Saxony.  A  desperate  resistance  was  here  and 
there  made  by  the  people.  The  most  valuable  of  the  con- 
fiscated property  was  granted  in  donation  to  the  Jesuits, 
who  were  triumphantly  re-established  in  the  country  for  the 
purpose  of  drugging  the  minds  of  the  enslaved  people,  and 
so  skilfully  did  they  fulfil  their  office  that,  ere  one  generation 
had  passed  away,  the  bold,  free-spirited,  intelligent  Bohemian 
was  no  longer  to  be  recognized  in  the  brutish  creature,  the 
offspring  of  their  craft,  that  until  very  lately  has  vegetated 
unnoted  by  history. 

A  similar  plan  was  pursued  in  Silesia,  which  had  sub- 
mitted on  the  guarantee  of  its  religious  liberty  by  the  elector 
of  Saxony.  Jesuits  or  other  monks,  accompanied  by  a  troop  of 
the  Lichtenstein  dragoons,  under  Count  Hannibal  von  Dohna, 
went  from  village  to  village,  from  one  house  to  another,  for 
the  purpose  of  converting  the  inhabitants;  pillage,  torture, 
the  murder  or  robbery  of  children,  were  the  means  resorted 
to.  Emigration  was  prohibited.  The  emperor,  not  satisfied 
with  suppressing  religious  liberty,  also  restricted  the  civil 
liberty  of  the  Estates  and  metamorphosed  the  Silesian  pro- 
vincial Estates  into  a  body  of  commissioners  nominated  by 
and  subservient  to  him.  Breslau  and  the  duchies  of  Lieg- 
nitz,  Brieg,  and  Oels,  which  were  still  governed  by  their 
petty  immediate  princes,  were  alone  spared.  Ferdinand, 
unable  to  suppress  Protestantism  in  Hungary,  secured  his 
hereditary  provinces  from  infection  by  commercial  interdic- 
tions. His  offer  of  pardon  to  a  fugitive  nobleman,  Frederick 
von  Roggendorf,  on  condition  of  his  return  to  his  country, 
received  for  answer,  "What  sort  of  pardon;  a  Bohemian  one? 
Heads  off!  A  Moravian  one?  Imprisonment  for  life!  An 
Austrian  one?  Confiscation!"  These  horrors  were  enacted 
at  Ferdinand's  command,  under  the  superintendence  of  his 
confessor,  Lamormain,  who  styled  himself,  in  reference  to 
the  immense  confiscations  that  took  place,  "God's  clerk 
of  the  exchequer!"     Saxony  received  the  Lausitz  in  pledge; 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'   WAR  989 

Brandenburg  was  invested  with  Prussia.  Frederick  of  Bo- 
hemia, John  George  von  Jasgerndorf,  and  Mansfeld  (on 
whose  head  a  price  was  fixed),  were  put  under  the  ban  of 
the  empire.  Anhalt  and  Hohenlohe  were  pardoned.  The 
Protestant  Union  voluntarily  dissolved  in  1621. 

Disturbances,  caused  by  the  attempt  made  by  the  em- 
peror to  get  the  passes  of  the  Grisons  into  his  hands,  on 
account  of  the  communication  with  Spain  and  Italy,  but 
more  particularly  for  the  purpose  of  cutting  off  that  between 
Switzerland  and  Venice,  which  countenanced  the  Reformers, 
broke  out  simultaneously  in  Switzerland.  The  inhabitants 
of  Veltlin  were  butchered,  in  1620,  by  the  Spanish  and 
Italian  troops  under  the  Archduke  Leopold  and  Feria,  gov- 
ernor of  Milan;  but  the  peasantry,  excited  to  desperation  by 
this  outrage,  rising  en  masse,  the  imperialists  were  driven 
out  of  the  country  in  1622.  Teufl'enbach,  who  had  taken 
refuge  in  Switzerland  from  the  troubles  in  Moravia,  and  who 
lay  sick  at  Pfaeffers,  was,  during  this  contest,  seized  by  the 
people  of  Sargans,  sold  to  Ferdinand's  executioners,  and  be- 
headed at  Innsbruck. 

CCV.    Revolt  of  the   Upper  Austrians — Count  Mansfeld 

The  Austrian  nobility,  impelled  by  fear  and  by  the  hope 
of  reward,  had  yielded.  Death  and  confiscation  struck  them 
with  terror,  while  the  splendid  recompense  bestowed  by  Fer- 
dinand on  the  Count  of  Lichtenstein,  whom  he  created  prince 
and  endowed  with  the  whole  of  the  confiscated  lands  of 
Jgegerndorf  and  with  Troppau  in  Silesia  in  return  for  his 
fidelity,  induced  many  among  the  rest  of  the  aristocracy  to 
declare  their  adherence  to  the  crown.  The  most  resolute  of 
the  opposite  party  bade  an  eternal  farewell  to  their  country. 
The  last  resolution  published  by  the  emperor,  in  February, 
1625,  was  as  follows:  "His  imperial  Majesty  reserves  to 
himself,  to  his  heirs  and  successors,  the  complete  control  of 
religion,"  according  to  the  principle  of  "cujus  rcgio,  ejus 
religio, "  perfectly  independent  of  the  pope,  in  right  of  his 


990  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

political,  not  of  his  ecclesiastical  supremacy.  The  Estates 
were  forever  prohibited  the  discussion  of  religious  matters 
under  pain  of  a  fine  of  one  million  florins  on  the  whole  as- 
sembly, and  a  court  of  correction,  empowered  to  confiscate 
the  estates  of  all  political  offenders,  was  established  at 
Vienna.  The  numbers  of  the  nobility  were  by  these  means 
considerably  reduced,  and  their  confiscated  property  served 
to  reward  the  few  proselytes  of  the  crown.  In  Austria,  as 
in  Bohemia,  the  numerous  independent  nobility  possessed  of 
petty  estates  was  replaced  by  a  small  number  of  favorites 
and  upstarts,  some  of  whom  introduced  new  and  foreign 
races  into  the  country,  and  on  whom  large  tracts  of  land 
were  bestowed.  The  people  were  forever  deprived  of  their 
only  organ,  the  Estates,  on  which  they  had  reposed  implicit 
confidence,  by  the  flight  and  defection  of  the  nobility;  they 
were,  notwithstanding,  at  that  time  far  from  being  the  blind, 
dull  mass  they  afterward  became,  and  among  their  ranks 
there  were  many  men  devoid  neither  of  spirit  nor  intelligence. 

Upper  Austria  had  been  consigned  by  Ferdinand  to  Max- 
imilian of  Bavaria  by  way  of  indemnification  for  the  expenses 
of  the  war.  The  Count  von  Herberstorf,  a  man  of  an  aus- 
tere and  cruel  disposition,  possessed  of  great  personal  cour- 
age, the  stadtholder  appointed  by  Bavaria  over  Linz,  gave 
his  soldiers  license  to  plunder,  vex,  and  murder  the  heretical 
peasantry.  The  whole  country  being  Lutheran,  the  re-estab- 
lishment  of  Catholicism  was  necessarily  gradual.  The  mag- 
istracy, corporative  privileges,  the  use  of  hospitals,  the  right 
of  guardianship,  were  one  by  one  withdrawn  from  the  Lu- 
therans; their  children  were  torn  from  them  and  educated  in 
the  Catholic  faith,  their  wills  were  declared  invalid,  etc.  In 
1624,  all  Lutherans  who  still  publicly  professed  their  faith 
were  compelled  to  emigrate;  in  1625,  the  external  ceremonies 
of  the  Catholic  Church,  the  fasts,  the  accompaniment  of  pro- 
cessions with  banners,  etc.,  were  strictly  enforced,  and  the 
Easter  of  1626  was  fixed  as  the  term  for  the  entire  suppres- 
sion of  heresy  throughout  the  country. 

This  decree  was  a  signal  for  a  last  and  desperate  struggle. 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR  991 

The  people  resolved  to  shed  the  last  drop  of  their  blood  for 
the  gospel  rather  than  pollute  themselves  by  participating  in 
the  devilish  idolatry  of  their  tyrannical  master.  The  peas- 
antry of  the  mere  of  Frankenburg  first  revolted  and  expelled 
the  priests  engaged  in  purifying  the  church  at  Zwiespalten, 
by  fumigation,  from  the  smell  of*  heresy.  Herberstorf  was, 
however,  at  hand,  and,  ordering  seventeen  of  the  peasants  to 
be  seized,  had  them  hanged  as  ornaments  on  the  tower  and 
beneath  the  eaves  of  the  sacred  edifice.  This  sacrilegious 
deed  caused  a  general  insurrection.  Herberstorf  was  de- 
feated at  Peurbach,  where  he  lost  twelve  hundred  of  his 
men,  and  was  forced  to  seek  shelter  within  the  walls  of 
Linz.  Stephen  Fadinger,  a  wealthy  peasant,  formerly  a 
hatmaker,  was  placed  at  the  head  of  the  insurgents,  who 
divided  themselves  into  regiments,  some  of  which  wore  a 
black  uniform  in  sign  of  sorrow  for  their  country,  fixed  upon 
certain  places  of  meeting,  and  maintained  the  most  perfect 
order,  without  having  a  single  member  of  the  ancient  Es- 
tates either  at  their  head  or  among  their  ranks.  A  collision 
took  place  at  Hausruckviertel  between  the  scattered  soldiery 
and  the  peasantry,  which  terminated  in  a  general  assassina- 
tion of  the  Bavarians. 

The  Estates  were  now  convoked  for  the  purpose  of  medi- 
ating between  the  emperor  and  "his  trusty  peasantry,"  to 
whose  complaints  ue  promised  to  turn  a  "lenient  ear,"  while 
he  made  fresh  military  preparations,  the  presence  of  his 
troops  being  at  that  time  required  in  other  parts  of  the  em- 
pire. The  peasants,  meantime,  continued  to  arm  themselves, 
and  seized  three  vessels  bearing  Bavarian  troops  up  the  Dan- 
ube to  the  relief  of  Linz.  No  quarter  was  given.  Fadinger, 
on  his  part,  took  advantage  of  the  truce  to  gather  in  the 
harvest  and  to  provide  for  the  future  wants  of  his  followers. 
The  alternative  offered  by  him  to  the  emperor  was,  "liberty 
of  conscience  or  renunciation  of  allegiance  to  the  house  of 
Habsburg. " 

The  attempt  to  compel  Linz,  Enns,  and  Freistadt  to  ca- 
pitulate by  famine  failing,  Fadinger  formally  besieged  them 


992  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

in  the  summer  of  1626,  when  he  was  killed  by  a  cannon-ball 
while  reconnoitring  the  fortifications  of  Linz.  The  attacks 
of  the  enraged  peasantry  proved  futile.  Wiellinger,  their  new 
leader,  was  unpossessed  of  the  talent  of  his  gifted  predecessor. 
Another  body  of  insurgents  under  Wolf  Wurm  had,  mean- 
while, gained  possession  of  Freistadt,  and  Enns  had  been  re- 
lieved by  a  troop  of  imperialists  under  Colonel  Loebel,  whose 
soldiery  set  the  villages  in  flames  and  butchered  their  inhabi- 
tants. Wiellinger,  instead  of  opposing  them  with  his  formid- 
able numbers,  foolishly  marched  the  main  body  of  his  forces 
upon  Linz,  where  he  met  with  insurmountable  difficulties  and 
a  determined  resistance.  His  attempts  to  take  the  place  by 
storm  were  signally  defeated.  A  thousand  of  the  peasants 
were  killed  and  numbers  wounded.  A  night-attack  by  water 
also  failed,  and  a  ship,  crowded  with  peasants,  was  blown 
into  the  air.  Fresh  regiments  of  imperialists  and  Bavarians, 
meanwhile,  poured  into  the  country.  Loebel  was  supported 
by  the  Colonels  von  Auersperg,  Preuner,  and  Schafftenberg. 
Preuner  took  Freistadt  by  a  coup  de  main  and  defeated  a 
body  of  peasantry  at  Kerschbaum.  Wiellinger,  compelled  to 
raise  the  siege  of  Linz,  during  which  he  had  lost  all  his  am- 
munition and  his  army  had  been  reduced  to  two  thousand 
men,  when  too  late,  attacked  Loebel,  and  a  dreadful  battle 
took  place  at  Neuhofen,  where  one  thousand  of  the  peasants 
fell  and  Wiellinger  was  severely  wounded.  He  was  replaced 
by  a  fresh  leader,  "the  Student,"  whose  real  name  was  never 
known,  although  he  was  the  greatest  character  that  appeared 
in  this  tragedy.  The  peasants,  inspired  by  him  with  fresh 
courage,  undauntedly  opposed  the  troops  now  pouring  upon 
them  from  every  quarter.  Adolf,  duke  of  Holstein,  the  em- 
peror's ally,  was  surprised  by  the  Student  during  the  night 
near  Wessenufer;  a  thousand  of  his  men  were  slain,  and  he 
was  constrained  to  flee  in  his  shirt  to  Bavaria.  General 
Lindlo,  who  was  sent  by  Maximilian  to  avenge  this  disgrace, 
fell  into  an  ambuscade  laid  by  the  Student  in  the  great  Pram 
forest.  Lindlo  contrived  to  escape,  but  almost  the  whole  of 
his  officers  and  three  thousand  of  his  men  were  cut  to  pieces. 


THE   THIRTY    YEARS'   WAR  993 

Another  body  of  peasantry  defeated  Loebel  on  the  Welser- 
heath.  Preuner  was,  however,  victorious  in  the  Muhiviertel 
and  at  Lambach.  The  Student  divided  his  men  into  three 
bodies  and  took  up  a  strong  position  at  Weibern,  Eferding, 
and  Gmunden,  at  which  latter  place  rocks  and  stones  were 
rolled  upon  Herberstorf's  troops,  which  were  put  to  flight, 
leaving  one  thousand  five  hundred  men  on  the  field. 

The  celebrated  general,  Henry  Godfrey  von  Pappenheim, 
whose  fame  as  a  distinguished  commander  of  the  League 
was  only  second  to  that  of  Tilly,  was  now  despatched  into 
the  mountains  at  the  head  of  fresh  troops  against  the  invin- 
cible Student,  whom  he  attacked  in  his  second  position  at 
Eferding,  and  at  length,  after  a  hard  and  dubious  contest, 
in  which  two  thousand  of  the  peasantry  were  slain,  defeated. 
He  then  marched  upon  Gmunden,  whence  he  succeeded  in 
dislodging  the  enemy,  who  instantly  took  up  a  strong  posi- 
tion in  a  wood.  The  whole  of  the  imperial  forces  stood  here 
opposed  to  the  little  body  of  peasantry,  and  in  such  close 
vicinity  that  the  psalms  sung  by  them  and  a  sermon  deliv- 
ered by  the  Student,  in  which  he  exhorted  them  to  be  of 
good  courage,  were  plainly  heard  by  the  foe.  The  charge 
made  by  the  peasantry  upon  the  flank  of  the  imperialists 
was  at  first  successful,  the  whole  of  the  right  wing  taking  to 
flight  and  being  pursued  as  far  as  the  streets  of  Gmunden, 
notwithstanding  which,  after  a  murderous  battle  of  four 
hours,  Pappenheim  kept  the  field  and  four  thousand  peas- 
ants were  slain.  This  defeat  was  followed  by  the  battles  of 
Vcecklabruck  and  Wolfsegg,  in  which  several  thousands 
of  the  peasantry  fell,  among  others  the  unknown  Student, 
whose  head  was  presented  to  the  general.  An  enormous 
mound  that  was  raised  over  the  fallen  brave  near  Pisdorf, 
and  which  is  still  known  as  the  Peasant  Mound,  is  the  only 
record  that  remains  of  those  bloody  times. 

The  country  was  placed  under  martial  law.  A  number 
of  captive  peasants  were  dragged  to  Vienna,  whence  they 
never  returned.  Many  thousands  had  fallen.  The  remainder 
were  converted  to  Catholicism  by  the  military  and  by  the 

Germany.     Vol.  III. — 4 


994  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

Jesuits.  The  remains  of  Fadinger  and  Zeller  were,  at  the 
emperor's  command,  exhumed  and  burned  by  the  hangman. 
Wiellinger  and  twelve  of  the  other  ringleaders  were  ex- 
ecuted; numbers  of  the  peasants  were  butchered  by  the 
soldiery,  and,  in  conclusion,  the  emperor,  unable  to  deny 
himself  the  pleasure,  ordered  Madlfeder,  Hausleitner,  and 
Holzmuller,  the  poor  peasant  commissioners,  who  had  for- 
merly entered  into  negotiation  with  him  and  the  Estates  and 
who  had  received  a  safe-conduct  signed  with  his  royal  hand 
to  be  seized,  quartered  alive,  and  their  limbs  exposed  on  ^al- 
lows on  the  highroads  in  different  parts  of  the  country. 

The  obstinacy  with  which  the  people,  notwithstanding 
the  success  of  the  League  and  the  treachery  of  the  princes, 
asserted  their  liberty  of  conscience,  had,  by  the  great  con- 
course of  soldiery  beneath  their  banners,  enabled  some  of 
the  minor  nobility,  among  others,  Count  Mansl'eld,  to  keep 
the  field.  This  diminutive,  sickly- looking,  deformed  man, 
possessed  a  hero's  soul.  The  Protestants  flocked  in  such 
crowds  beneath  his  standard,  that,  in  the  autumn  of  1621, 
he  found  himself  in  Alsace  at  the  head  of  twenty  thousand 
men;  but,  deserted  by  all  the  powerful  princes,  who  alone 
possessed  the  means  of  supporting  an  army,  he  was  com- 
pelled by  necessity  to  maintain  his  troops  by  pillage,  an  ex- 
ample that  was  imitated  by  all  the  leaders  during  this  terri- 
ble war.  In  the  ensuing  spring,  seconded  by  some  of  the 
minor  princes,  who  had  ventured  to  join  him  during  the 
winter,  he  took  the  field  against  Tilly.  George  Frederick, 
Margrave  of  Baden-Durlach,  had  taken  up  arms  against  the 
emperor  on  account  of  the  protection  afforded  by  him  to  his 
cousin  William  of  Baden-Baden,  whom  he  sought,  under 
pretext  of  the  illegitimacy  of  his  birth,  to  deprive  of  his  in- 
heritance. Christian  of  Brunswick,  the  youngest  brother  of 
Frederick  Ulric  of  Wolfenbuttel,  another  of  his  allies,  was 
an  adventurer,  who,  having  become  enamored  of  Elisabeth, 
ex-queen  of  Bohemia,  wore  her  glove  in  his  hat,  and  fought 
for  "God  and  his  lady."  He  entered  Westphalia  and  plun- 
dered the  wealthy  churches  and  monasteries.     Numbers  of 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR  995 

the  towns  escaped  pillage  on  payment  of  ransom;  he  lost, 
however,  one  thousand  two  hundred  men  before  the  little 
town  of  Geseke. — Mansfeld  was  also  joined  by  John  Ernest, 
Frederick  and  William  of  Saxe- Weimar,  who  were  filled 
with  indignation  at  the  guardianship  attempted  to  be  im- 
posed upon  them  by  the  treacherous  elector  of  Saxony. 
Their  youngest  brother,  Bernard,  served,  in  his  eighteenth 
year,  in  his  brother  William's  regiment.  Magnus  of  Wur- 
temberg  also  took  up  arms  in  Mansfeld's  favor,  against  the 
wish  of  his  brother,  John  Frederick,  the  reigning  duke. — 
Maurice,  Landgrave  of  Hesse-Cassel,  also  showed  great  zeal 
in  the  cause,  but  was  not  supported  by  his  provincial  Es- 
tates, the  prelates  and  the  nobility,  who  entered  into  a  sepa- 
rate negotiation  with  the  Spaniards,  between  whom  and  the 
nobility  a  treaty  was  concluded  at  Bingen,  1621,  in  the 
name  of  the  Landgrave,  who  angrily  protested  against  it. 
fie  was  unable,  owing  to  the  defection  of  the  Estates,  to 
bring  a  sufficient  number  of  troops  into  the  field. 

The  ex- king  of  Bohemia  ventured  in  person  into  the  camp 
of  Mansfeld,  who,  united  with  the  Margrave  of  Baden,  de- 
feated Tilly,  who  was  murdering  and  burning  in  the  Pfalz, 
near  Wisloch  or  Mingelsheim;  but  the  Margrave,  separating 
from  him,  was  attacked  at  Wimpfen  by  Tilly,  who,  mean- 
while, had  been  joined  by  Cordova,  and  was  completely 
routed.  His  flight  was  covered  by  four  hundred  of  the  citi- 
zens of  Pforzheim,  under  their  burgomaster,  Deimling,  who 
were  cut  down  to  a  man.  Magnus  of  Wurtemberg  fell,  cov- 
ered with  glory.  Bernard  of  Weimar  greatly  distinguished 
himself  in  this  action.  Mansfeld  had,  in  the  meantime, 
taken  prisoner  Louis,  Landgrave  of  Darmstadt,  who  had 
refused  him  a  free  passage  across  his  territory.  Christian 
of  Brunswick,  when  attempting  to  join  Mansfeld,  was  sur- 
prised and  defeated  at  Hoechst  on  the  Maine,  where  a  terri- 
ble slaughter  took  place,  Christian  having  rendered  himself 
peculiarly  obnoxious  to  the  Catholics.  Mansfeld's  operations 
were  rendered  less  effective  by  the  unexpected  desertion  of 
the  ex-king  of  Bohemia,  who,  at  the  instigation  of  Saxony, 


996  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

implored  the  emperor's  pardon  and  dismissed  his  troops. 
Mansfeld,  without  money  or  credit,  had  now  but  one  alter- 
native, and  threw  himself,  with  Christian,  into  Champagne, 
for  the  purpose  of  inspiring  Louis  XIII. ,  who  had  begun  to 
persecute  the  Huguenots,  with  alarm,  and  of  providing  him- 
self with  the  means  of  subsistence,  and  marched  thence  into 
the  Netherlands  with  the  intention  of  attacking  Spinola, 
who  had  forced  the  Dutch  to  retreat  upon  the  Rhine,  taken 
Juliers,  and  was  besieging  Bergen-op-Zoom.  Although  pur- 
sued by  Cordova,  they  fought  their  way  in  the  Ardennes 
through  the  insurgent  peasantry,  gained  a  brilliant  victory 
over  the  united  forces  of  Cordova  and  Spinola  at  Fleurus, 
and  raised  the  siege  of  Bergen-op-Zoom.  Frederick  of  Wei- 
mar, who  had  ventured  to  join  the  evangelical  fugitives,  fell 
in  this  battle,  and  Christian  was  severely  wounded.  The 
winter  was  passed  in  East  Friesland,  where  the  maintenance 
of  the  troops  fell  heavily  on  the  unremunerated  peasantry. 
Mansfeld  visited  London,  where  he  was  received  with  great 
acclamations,  in  the  hope  of  gaining  assistance  from  Eng- 
land. He  was  wrecked  during  his  return,  and  saved  by  the 
fidelity  of  his  friends  and  attendants,  sixty-six  in  number, 
who  ceded  to  him  the  only  chance  of  escape,  a  frail  boat, 
which  bore  him  safely  to  land,  while  they  calmly  resigned 
themselves  to  a  watery  grave. 

Mansfeld' s  retreat  left  the  Upper  Rhine  a  prey  to  Tilly's 
vengeance.  Heidelberg  was  stormed  by  his  savage  soldiery, 
by  whom  the  wretched  inhabitants  were  treated  with  horrid 
cruelty.  The  valuable  library  was  sent  by  Maximilian,  whose 
possession  of  Upper  Austria  began  to  excite  the  displeasure 
of  Ferdinand,  to  the  pope,  Gregory  XV.,  as  a  means  of  re- 
taining that  pontiff's  favor.  The  precious  ancient  German 
manuscripts,  contained  in  this  library,  reached  Rome  in 
safety,  and  were  thus  saved  from  sharing  the  destruction 
that,  during  later  wars,  awaited  the  castle  of  .Heidelberg, 
where  they  had  been  kept,  which  fell  a  prey  to  the  flames. 
They  were  sent  back  to  Heidelberg  in  1815.  Mannheim  was 
taken  by  storm  and  burned  to  the  ground.     Frankenthal 


THE   THIRTY    YEARS'   WAR  997 

capitulated.  The  inhabitants  of  Germersheim,  although  the 
troops  of  the  Pfalz  had  evacuated  the  place,  were  butchered 
by  the  imperialists.  Catholicism  was  reimposed  upon  the 
whole  of  the  Pfalz.  Nor  did  the  opposite  side  of  the  Rhine 
escape.  Strasburg  mainly  owed  the  preservation  of  her  lib- 
erty of  conscience  to  the  strength  of  her  walls,  but  the  greater 
part  of  the  inhabitants  of  Hagenau  and  Colmar  (Protestants) 
were  compelled  to  emigrate. 

Ferdinand,  with  the  view  of  realizing  the  projects,  the 
execution  of  which  he  had  commenced  by  force,  by  means 
of  negotiation,  and  the  promulgation  of  new  laws,  convoked 
the  electoral  princes,  in  1628,  to  Ratisbon.  This  was  no 
longer  a  diet,  but  an  aristocratic  assembly,  whence  the  other 
Estates  of  the  empire  were,  during  this  reign  of  terror,  arbi- 
trarily excluded  by  the  emperor,  who  hoped  to  succeed  in  his 
schemes  by  the  sole  aid  of  the  princes.  His  first  object  was 
the  conclusion  of  a  treaty  with  Bavaria,  whom  he  hoped  to 
supersede  as  the  head  of  the  Catholic  party,  and  on  whom, 
being  compelled  to  reward  him  for  his  services,  he  bestowed 
the  Upper  Pfalz  in  fee  and  the  electoral  dignity,  but,  jealous 
of  his  power  and  influence,  retained  Rhenish  Pfalz  under 
pretext  of  the  offence  a  grant  of  that  country  would  give  to 
Frederick's  father-in-law,  the  English  monarch.  In  order 
to  attach  the  minor  princes  to  his  person,  and  by  their  means 
to  create  a  counterpoise  to  Bavaria,  he  bestowed  at  this  diet 
the  title  of  prince  on  the  Counts  von  Hohenzollern  and  great 
privileges  on  the  Counts  von  Furstenberg.  Rhenish  Pfalz 
merely  lost  the  wealthy  monastery  of  Lorsch,  which  was 
ceded  to  Mayence.  Maximilian,  forced  to  content  himself 
with  the  Upper  Pfalz,  of  which  he  took  possession  to  the 
great  dissatisfaction  of  the  inhabitants,  immediately  abol- 
ished the  ancient  constitution  and  banished  all  the  Protes- 
tant inhabitants.  Thus  ended  the  first  act  in  the  thirty 
years'  tragedy,  the  Calvinistic  and  Hussite  movement  in 
Upper  Germany,  which  the  Lutherans  in  Lower  Germany, 
instead  of  favoring,  had  aided  the  Catholics  to  oppose. 

Peace  was,  nevertheless,  still  out  of  the  question.     All 


998  THE   HISTORY  OF  GERMANY 

the  bulwarks  of  the  Reformation  in  the  South  had  been 
destroyed.  The  North,  that  fondly  deemed  herself  secure, 
was  next  to  be  attacked.  The  cruel  fanaticism  of  the  em- 
peror and  the  perfidy  of  Saxony  had  weakened  every  guar- 
antee. The  dread  of  the  general  and  forcible  suppression 
of  Protestantism  throughout  Germany,  and  shame  for  their 
inaction,  induced  the  circle  of  Lower  Saxony  to  take  up 
arms  and  to  seek  aid  from  their  Protestant  brethren  in  Eng- 
land, Denmark,  and  Sweden.  Richelieu  was  at  this  time 
at  the  head  of  affairs  in  France,  and,  although  as  a  cardinal 
a  zealous  upholder  of  Catholicism,  he  was  not  blind  to  the 
opportunity  offered,  by  supporting  the  German  Protestants 
against  the  emperor,  for  weakening  the  power  of  that  poten- 
tate, partitioning  Germany,  and  extending  the  French  terri- 
tory toward  the  Rhine.  The  German  Lutherans,  insnared 
by  his  intrigues,  blinded  by  fear,  and  driven  to  this  false 
step  by  the  despotism  and  perfidy  of  the  emperor,  little  fore- 
saw the  immeasurable  misfortune  foreign  interference  was 
to  bring  upon  their  country.  Bellin,  the  French  plenipoten- 
tiary, at  first  wished  to  place  the  warlike  Swedish  monarch, 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  at  the  head  of  the  German  Protestants, 
entered  into  alliance  with  England,  and  gained  over  the 
elector  of  Brandenburg,  who  promised  his  sister,  Catherine, 
to  the  Russian  czar,  in  order  to  keep  a  check  upon  Poland, 
at  that  period  at  war  with  Sweden;  but  these  intrigues  were 
frustrated  by  Christian  IV.,  king  of  Denmark,  who  antici- 
pated the  Swedes  by  taking  up  arms  and  placing  himself  at 
the  head  of  the  movement.  Gustavus,  at  that  time  engaged 
with  Poland,  was  unable  to  interfere.  The  Russian  match 
was  broken  off,  1625,  and  the  luckless  bride  was  given  in 
marriage  to  the  aged  Bethlen  Gabor. 

CCVI.     Wallenslein — The  Banish   Campaign 

War  with  Denmark  no  sooner  threatened  than  Ferdi- 
nand, to  the  great  discontent  of  Bavaria,  raised  an  army, 
independent  of  the  League,  by  the  assistance  of  a  Bohemian 


THE   THIRTY    YEARS'   WAR  999 

nobleman,  Albert  von  Wallenstein  (properly,  Waldstein). 
This  nobleman  belonged  to  a  Protestant  family,  and  had 
been  bred  in  that  faith.  He  had  acquired  but  a  scanty  sup- 
ply of  learning  at  the  university  of  Goldberg  in  Silesia,  which 
he  quitted  to  enter  as  a  page  the  Catholic  court  of  Burgau. 
While  here  he  fell,  when  asleep,  out  of  one  of  the  high  castle 
windows  without  receiving  any  injury.  He  afterward  stud- 
ied the  dark  sciences,  more  especially  astrology,  in  Italy,  and 
read  his  future  destiny,  of  which  he  had  had  a  secret  pre- 
sentiment from  his  early  childhood,  in  the  stars.  He  com- 
menced his  career  in  the  emperor's  service,  by  opposing  the 
Turks  in  Hungary,  where  he  narrowly  escaped  death  from 
swallowing  a  love-potion  administered  to  him  by  Wiczkowa, 
an  aged  but  extremely  wealthy  widow,  whom  he  had  mar- 
ried, and  with  whose  money  he  raised  a  regiment  of  cuiras- 
siers for  the  emperor.  His  popularity  was  so  great  in  Bo- 
hemia that  the  Bohemians,  on  the  breaking  out  of  the 
disturbances  in  Prague,  appointed  him  their  general.  He, 
nevertheless,  remained  attached  to  the  imperial  service  and 
greatly  distinguished  himself  in  the  field  against  Mansfeld 
and  Bethlen  Gabor.  By  a  second  and  equally  rich  mar- 
riage with  the  Countess  Harrach,  and  by  the  favor  of  the 
emperor,  who  bestowed  upon  him  Friedland  and  the  dignity 
of  count  of  the  empire,  but  chiefly  by  the  purchase  of  num- 
berless estates,  which,  on  account  of  the  numerous  confisca- 
tions and  emigrations,  were  sold  in  Bohemia  at  merely  a 
nominal  prioe,  and  by  the  adulteration  of  coin,1  Wallenstein 
became  possessed  of  such  enormous  wealth  as  to  be,  next  to 
the  emperor,  the  richest  proprietor  in  the  empire.  The  em- 
peror requesting  him  to  raise  a  body  of  ten  thousand  men, 
he  levied  forty  thousand,  an  army  of  that  magnitude  being 
solely  able  to  provide  itself  in  every  quarter  with  subsistence, 
and  was,  in  return,  created  duke  of  Friedland  and  generalis- 


1  He  purchased  property  to  the  amount  of  7,290,000  florins,  a  fifth  of  its  real 
value,  and  the  coin  with  which  he  paid  for  it  was,  moreover,  so  bad  that  the 
emperor  was  compelled  to  securo  him  against  enforced  restitution  by  an  express 
privilege. 


1000  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

simo  of  the  imperial  forces.  A  few  months  sufficed  for  the 
levy  of  the  troops,  his  fame  and  the  principles  on  which  he 
acted  attracting  crowds  beneath  his  standard.  Every  relig- 
ion, but  no  priest,  was  tolerated  within  his  camp;  the  strict- 
est discipline  was  enforced  and  the  greatest  license  permitted; 
merit  met  with  a  princely  reward;  the  commonest  soldier, 
who  distinguished  himself,  was  promoted  to  the  highest 
posts;  and  around  the  person  of  the  commander  was  spread 
the  charm  of  mystery;  he  was  reported  to  be  in  league  with 
the  powers  of  darkness,  to  be  invulnerable,  and  to  have  en- 
chained victory  to  his  banner.  Fortune  was  his  deity  and 
the  motto  of  his  troops.  In  person  he  was  tall  and  thin; 
his  countenance  was  sallow  and  lowering;  his  eyes  were 
small  and  piercing,  his  forehead  was  high  and  command- 
ing, his  hair  short  and  bristling.  He  was  surrounded  with 
mystery  and  silence.1 

Tilly,  jealous  of  Wallenstein's  fame,  hastened  to  antici- 
pate that  leader  in  the  reduction  of  the  circle  of  Lower  Sax- 
ony. The  Danish  monarch,  who  held  Schleswig  and  Hol- 
stein  by  right  of  inheritance,  and  Ditmarsch  by  that  of 
conquest,  while  his  son,  Frederick,  governed  the  bishoprics 
of  Bremen  and  Verdun,  attempted  to  encroach  still  further 
on  the  German  empire  and  long  carried  on  a  contest  with 
Lubeck  and  Hamburg.  During  peace  time,  in  1619,  he 
seized  the  free  town  of  Stade,  under  the  pretext,  customary 
in  those  times,  of  protecting  the  aristocratic  council  against 
the  rebellious  citizens.  He  also  built  Gluckstadt,  and  levied 
high  customs  on  the  citizens  of  Hamburg.  The  avarice  and 
servility  of  the  princes  of  Wolfenbuttel  and  Luneburg-Zelle 
had  also  at  that  period  rendered  them  contemptible  and  de- 
prived them  of  much  of  their  former  power  and  influence. 
Christian  the  Wild,  of  Brunswick,  was  appointed  generalis- 

1  Two  portraits  of  this  singular  man  are  to  be  seen  at  Dux  near  Tceplitz,  one 
of  the  country  residences  of  the  present  counts  of  Waldstein.  One  represents 
him  as  a  fair  youth,  whose  smooth  and  open  brow  is  still  unsullied  by  crime; 
the  other  bears  the  dark  and  sinister  aspect  of  a  man  whose  hands  have  been 
imbrued  in  blood,  whose  seared  conscience  hesitates  at  no  means,  however 
base,  cruel  or  unholy,  for  the  attainment  of  his  purpose. — Trans. 


THE    THIRTY  YEARS'   WAR  1001 

simo  of  the  circle  of  Lower  Saxony,  but  was  no  sooner  op- 
posed by  Tilly  than  his  brother,  George  Frederick  Ulric  of 
Wolfenbuttel,  and  the  Danish  king,  withdrew  their  troops 
and  dissolved  the  confederacy.  Christian,  nevertheless,  still 
kept  the  field  with  those  of  his  allies  who  remained  faithful 
to  him,  among  others,  William  and  Bernard  of  Weimar,  and 
a  bloody  engagement  took  place  at  Stadtloo,  in  which  Tilly 
was  victorious  and  William  of  Weimar  was  wounded  and 
taken  prisoner.  He  returned  to  East  Friesland  to  Mansfeld. 
The  noble  Danish  body-guard  that  had  been  sent  to  Wolfen- 
buttel was  attacked  and  driven  across  the  frontier  by  the  en- 
raged German  peasantry,  and  the  Hanse  towns,  flattered  by 
the  emperor  and  imbittered  against  Denmark  by  the  erec- 
tion of  Gluckstadt  and  the  seizure  of  Stade,  were  almost  the 
first  to  recall  their  troops  and  to  desist  from  opposition,  while 
George  of  Luneburg,  attracted  by  the  report  of  the  great 
arrondissements  projected  by  the  emperor,  preferred  gain  to 
loss  and  formally  seceded. 

The  Danish  monarch  now  found  himself  totally  unpro- 
tected, and,  in  order  to  guard  his  German  acquisitions  in 
case  Brunswick  followed  the  example  of  the  Hansa  and  em- 
braced the  imperial  party,  set  himself  up  as  a  liberator  of 
G-ermany,  in  which  he  was  countenanced  and  upheld  by 
England,  Holland,  and  Richelieu,  the  omnipotent  minister 
of  France.  He,  nevertheless,  greatly  undervalued  the  si- 
multaneous revolt  of  the  Upper  Austrians,  to  whom  he  im- 
politically  offered  no  assistance.  The  German  princes  re- 
mained tranquil  and  left  the  Dane  unaided.  The  Hessian 
peasantry  rose  in  Tilly's  rear,  and  those  of  Brunswick,  en- 
raged at  the  cowardly  desertion  of  the  cause  of  religion  by 
the  princes  and  the  nobility,  killed  numbers  of  his  soldiery 
in  the  Sollinger  Forest,  captured  the  garrisons  of  Dassel  and 
Bodenwerder,  seized  a  large  convoy  near  Eimbeck,  destroyed 
the  castles  of  all  the  fugitive  nobility,  and  hunted  George's 
consort,  the  daughter  of  the  treacherous  Louis  of  Darmstadt, 
from  one  place  of  refuge  to  another.  The  citizens  of  Han- 
over, where  the  magistrate  was  about  to  capitulate  to  Tilly, 


1002  THE    HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

also  flew  to  arms  and  appointed  John  Ernest  of  Weimar 
commandant  of  their  city  in  1625. 

Tilly,  at  first  worsted  at  Niemburg  by  the  Danish  gen- 
eral, Obentraut,  who  fell  shortly  afterward  at  Seelze,  spread 
the  terror  of  his  name  throughout  Hesse,  Brunswick,  and 
the  rest  of  the  Lutheran  provinces.  The  Spaniards  in  the 
Netherlands,  encouraged  by  this  example,  again  resorted  to 
their  ancient  practices,  and,  during  the  winter  of  1626,  Henry- 
Count  von  Berg  made  an  inroad,  still  unforgotten  by  the 
Dutch,  into  the  Velau,  where  he  burned  down  the  villages, 
butchered  all  the  men,  and  left  the  women  and  children 
naked  and  houseless,  exposed  to  the  inclemency  of  the 
season. 

In  the  ensuing  year,  the  approach  of  Walleno+Jein  caused 
Tilly,  anxious  to  bind  the  laurels  of  victory  around  his  own 
brow,  to  bring  the  Danish  campaign  to  a  hasty  close,  and, 
taking  advantage  of  the  state  of  inactivity  to  which  the 
Danish  monarch  was  reduced  by  a  fall  from  horseback, 
seized  Hameln  and  Minden,  where  the  powder  'magazine 
blew  up  during  the  attack  and  destroyed  the  whole  garri- 
son, consisting  of  two  thousand  five  hundred  men,  1627. 
Havelberg,  Gottingen,  and  Hanover  next  fell  into  his  hands, 
and  a  pitched  battle  was  fought  on  the  Barenberg  near  Lut- 
ter,  which  terminated  in  the  rout  of  the  whole  of  the  Danish 
forces  and  the  surrender  of  Holstein. 

Mansfeld  and  John  Ernest  of  Weimar,  too  weak,  not- 
withstanding the  reinforcements  sent  to  their  aid  by  Eng- 
land and  Holland,  to  take  the  field  against  Wallenstein, 
who,  at  the  head  of  a  wild  and  undisciplined  army  of  sixty 
thousand  men,  was  advancing  upon  Lower  Germany,  at- 
tempted to  draw  him  through  Silesia  into  Hungary  and  to 
carry  the  war  into  the  hereditary  provinces  of  the  emperor, 
but  were  overtaken  and  defeated  on  the  bridge  of  Dessau. 
Mansfeld,  nevertheless,  escaped  into  Silesia,  where  his  popu- 
larity was  so  great  that  in  the  course  of  a  few  weeks  he 
found  himself  once  more  at  the  head  of  an  army  consisting 
of  twenty  thousand  evangelical  volunteers,  four  thousand 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'   WAR  1003 

Mecklenburgers,  and  three  thousand  Scots  and  Danes.  Wal- 
lenstein  pursued  him,  and  the  contending  armies  lay  for  some 
time  in  sight  of  each  other  on  the  Waag,  without  venturing 
an  engagement.  Wallenstein,  meanwhile,  gained  over  the 
Hungarian  king,  and  Mansfeld,  once  more  abandoned,  at- 
tempted to  escape  to  Venice,  but,  worn  out  by  chagrin  and 
fatigue,  expired,  standing  upright  in  his  armor,  at  Uraco- 
wicz,  in  Bosnia.  He  was  buried  at  Spalatro.  His  ally, 
John  Ernest  of  Weimar,  died  in  Hungary.  A  body  of  his 
troops  under  Colonel  Baudis  fought  their  way,  although  op- 
posed even  by  Brandenburg,  to  Denmark.  Bethlen  Gabor 
expired  in  1629,  leaving  no  issue. 

The  triumph  of  the  Catholics  was  complete.  As  early  as 
1625,  a  jubilee  had  been  solemnized  and  public  prayers  for 
the  extirpation  of  the  heretics  had  been  ordained  throughout 
the  whole  of  the  Catholic  world  by  the  pope,  Urban  VIII. , 
who  also  founded  the  celebrated  Propaganda,  congregatio 
de  propaganda  fide,  whose  members  were  instructed  in  the 
task,  whenever  violence  failed,  of  alluring  apostates,  more 
especially  the  princes,  back  to  the  bosom  of  the  one  true 
church. 

The  Protestant  cause  was  lost.  The  more  powerful  and 
influential  among  the  princes  of  the  Lutheran  Union  had 
turned  traitors;  the  lesser  potentates  had,  after  a  futile  con- 
test, been  compelled  to  yield.  Christian  of  Brunswick  ex- 
pired at  Wolfenbuttel.  The  Margrave  of  Baden  had  fled 
into  Denmark.  Maurice  of  Hesse  was  finally  reduced  to 
submission  by  Tilly,  and  died  in  1632,  after  abdicating  in 
favor  of  his  son,  William,  who,  not  bound,  like  his  father, 
by  an  oath  to  maintain  tranquillity,  was  free  to  seize  any  op- 
portunity that  offered  during  the  war  for  his  restoration  to 
power.  The  Hessian  nobility,  supported  by  Tilly,  had  ac- 
quired great  privileges  by  the  stipulations  of  the  peace  con- 
cluded between  that  general  and  Maurice,  of  which  they 
made  use  to  raise  a  tumult  against  their  sturdy  opponent, 
Wolfgang  Gunther,  the  Landgrave's  privy  councillor,  whom 
they  sentenced  to  execution. 


1004  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

The  opposition  offered  by  the  people  had  also  been  stifled 
in  blood.  The  peasants  in  Upper  Austria  and  Brunswick 
had  fallen  a  prey  to  the  soldiery,  and  an  insurrection  of  the 
Bohemian  peasantry,  under  Christopher  von  Redern,  who 
had  taken  Kcenigsgraetz  by  storm  and  laid  waste  the  prop- 
erty of  Wallenstein's  brother-in-law,  Terzki,  was  speedily 
quelled;  five  hundred  were  slain,  the  rest  branded  and  de- 
prived of  their  noses. 

Wallenstein  became  the  soul  of  the  intrigues  carried  on 
in  the  camps  and  in  the  little  courts  of  Northern  Germany, 
and  had  not  the  Catholics,  like  the  Protestants  at  an  earlier 
period,  been  blinded  by  petty  jealousies,  Europe  would  have 
been  molded  by  his  quick  and  comprehensive  genius  into  an- 
other form.  He  demanded  a  thorough  reaction,  an  uncondi- 
tional restoration  of  the  ancient  imperial  power,  a  monarchy 
absolute  as  that  of  France  and  Spain.  In  order  to  carry  out 
his  project  for  securing  the  submission  of  the  southern  prov- 
inces of  Germany  to  the  imperial  rule  by  the  firm  and  peace- 
able possession  of  those  in  the  north,  the  seat  of  opposition, 
he  invaded  Holstein,  defeated  the  Margrave  of  Baden  near 
Aalborg,  and  made  Christian  IV.  tremble  in  Copenhagen. 
Tilly,  meanwhile,  garrisoned  the  coasts  of  the  Baltic  and 
seized  Stade,  while  Arnheim,  with  the  Saxon  troops  sent  by 
the  elector  to  Wallenstein's  aid,  held  the  island  of  Rugen. 
Rostock  fell  into  the  hands  of  Wallenstein,  John  Albert  and 
Adolf  Frederick  of  Mecklenburg  were  driven  out  of  the  coun- 
try, Stralsund  was  besieged,  and  the  people  were  laid  under 
heavy  contributions.  Wallenstein  had  already  come  to  an 
understanding  with  Poland,  and  the  Hanse  towns  were 
drawn  into  his  interests  by  a  promise  of  the  annihilation  of 
the  Dutch,  of  the  traffic  of  the  whole  world  being  diverted 
from  Amsterdam  to  Hamburg,1  and  of  the  monopoly  of  the 
whole  of  the  commerce  of  Spain.  The  emperor,  in  order  to 
counterpoise  the  power  of  the  ancient  princely  families  which 
threatened  to  contravene  the  schemes  laid  for  his  aggrandize- 

1  These  promises  were  indeed  vain;    the  last  Hansoatic  diet  was  held  in 
1630.     The  Hansa  had  fallen  never  again  to  rise. 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR  1005 

merit  by  his  favorite,  bestowed  upon  him  the  principality  of 
Sagan,  in  Silesia,  and  the  whole  of  Mecklenburg,  while  he 
in  his  turn  proposed  to  gain  the  crown  of  Denmark  for  his 
master,  to  create  Tilly  duke  of  Brunswick-Calenberg  and 
Pappenheim  duke  of  Wolfenbuttel,  and,  in  order  to  evade 
George's  pretensions,  that  prince  was  sent  to  Italy  under 
pretence  of  securing  the  succession  of  the  petty  duchy  of 
Mantua  for  the  emperor. 

Wallenstein's  projects  were,  nevertheless,  frustrated  by 
his  own  party.  The  emperor  objected  to  the  Danish  crown 
as  too  precarious  a  possession,  while  Tilly,  a  zealous  Catho- 
lic and  Jesuit,  the  slave  of  his  order,  by  which  the  schemes 
of  the  duke  of  Friedland  were  viewed  with  suspicion,  and 
which  solely  aimed  at  the  suppression  of  the  Reformation, 
not  that  of  the  princely  aristocracy,  which  it  hoped  to  restore 
to  the  Catholic  Church,  gave  him  but  lukewarm  aid,  and  his 
attempts  upon  Stralsund  were,  consequently,  unsuccessful, 
and,  after  losing  twelve  thousand  men,  he  was  compelled  to 
raise  the  siege. 

The  Danes  were,  meanwhile,  forced  by  the  treaty  of  Lu- 
beck,  in  1629,  to  abandon  the  Protestant  cause.  Denmark, 
actuated  by  jealousy  of  Sweden,  consented  to  all  the  terms 
proposed,  and  a  marriage  between  Ulric,  the  crown  prince 
of  Denmark,  and  Wallenstein's  only  daughter,  was  even  agi- 
tated. Arnheim  was  sent  to  aid  Poland  against  Sweden. 
England,  whose  king,  James  I.,  had  been  won  over  by  the 
Jesuits,  also  abandoned  the  Protestant  cause. 

The  heroic  defence  of  Stralsund  decided  the  fate  of  Eu- 
rope. Wallenstein's  pride  received  a  deep  blow.  The  em- 
peror, already  doubtful  of  his  fidelity,  now  lost  his  belief  in 
his  unvarying  good  fortune  and  threw  himself  into  the  arms 
of  the  Jesuits,  who  chiefly  dreaded  a  schism  among  the 
Catholics.  Maximilian  of  Bavaria,  jealous  of  the  suprem- 
acy of  Austria,  had  already  entered  into  negotiation  with 
Richelieu  and  even  with  the  Lutheran  princes,  and  threat- 
ened to  take  the  field  against  the  emperor,  were  Wallenstein 
further  permitted  to  exercise  arbitrary  rule  throughout  the 


1006  THE  HISTORY   OF  GERMANY 

empire  and  to  treat  the  dignities  and  privileges  of  the  princes 
with  contempt.  Richelieu  also  dreaded  the  unity  of  Ger- 
many, and  offered  to  invade  the  empire  in  order  to  curb 
Wallenstein,  whose  genius  he  dreaded,  by  force. 

The  emperor,  undeterred  by  repeated  warnings,  aban- 
doned his  great  general,  and  published,  in  1629,  in  the 
spirit  of  the  League,  the  infamous  edict,  enforcing  the  res- 
titution of  all  ecclesiastical  property  confiscated  since  the 
treaty  of  Passau.  By  this  edict  the  Protestant  archbish- 
oprics of  Magdeburg  and  Bremen,  the  bishoprics  of  Hal- 
berstadt,  Minden,  Lubeck,  Ratzeburg,  Merseburg,  Misnia, 
Naumburg,  Brandenburg,  Havelberg,  Lebus,  Cammin,  and 
numberless  monastic  lands,  were  restored  to  the  Catholics. 
The  imperial  commissioners  intrusted  with  the  execution  of 
the  edict,  protected  by  the  Friedlanders  and  Leaguers,  exer- 
cised the  greatest  tyranny,  enforcing  the  restoration  of  lands 
confiscated  prior  to  the  term  fixed  and  the  recantation  of  their 
proprietors.  The  Catholic  ritual  was  re-established  in  all  the 
free  imperial  cities,  even  in  those  where,  as,  for  instance,  in 
Augsburg,  it  had  been  abolished  and  replaced  by  that  of 
Luther  long  before  the  treaty  of  Passau.  The  emperor  ap- 
propriated the  greater  part  of  the  booty  to  his  own  family, 
and  encouraged  plurality  by  appointing  his  son,  Leopold, 
archbishop,  and  bishop  of  Bremen,  Magdeburg,  Halberstadt, 
Passau,  Strasburg,  and  abbot  of  Hersfeld,  which  placed  all 
those  rich  ecclesiastical  demesnes  in  his  hands,  and  thus, 
while  seemingly  defending  religion  against  the  political  ego- 
tism of  the  Protestant  princes,  emulated  them  in  stripping 
the  church.  The  whole  of  the  confiscated  monastic  property, 
without  distinction,  fell  to  the  Jesuits. 

Lay  property  shared  a  similar  fate.  Every  nobleman  who 
had  served  under  Frederick  of  Bohemia,  Mansfeld,  or  Bruns- 
wick, was  deprived  of  his  estates,  and  the  emperor's  and  the 
Leaguers'  troops,  under  pretext  of  protecting  the  commis- 
sioners in  the  performance  of  their  duty,  were  stationed  in 
and  allowed  to  pillage  the  Protestant  provinces.  The  Cath- 
olics, nevertheless,  generally  viewed  their  success  with  dis- 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'   WAR  1007 

trust,  and  it  was  remarked  that,  in  Wurtemberg,  the  mon- 
asteries, instead  of  being  taken  into  possession,  were  merely 
plundered,  that  the  booty  was  carried  into  Bavaria  and  Aus- 
tria, that  even  the  forests  were  cleared  and  the  timber  sold. 
John  Frederick,  duke  of  Wurtemberg,  had  expired  in  1628, 
leaving  his  infant  son,  Eberhard  III.,  under  the  guardian- 
ship of  his  uncle,  Louis  Frederick,  who  died  shortly  after- 
ward of  chagrin  at  the  devastation  of  his  territories. 

The  cruelty  and  tyranny  practiced  by  the  emperor  re- 
mained wholly  unopposed  by  the  Protestant  princes.  The 
city  of  Magdeburg  alone  maintained  her  ancient  fame  by 
defending  her  walls  against  the  whole  of  the  imperial  forces. 
The  free  imperial  cities  had  been  delivered  up  to  the  emperor 
and  were  purposely  unrepresented  in  the  council  of  princes, 
which  usurped  the  prerogatives  of  a  diet  of  the  empire,  held 
at  Ratisbon  in  1630.  The  restoration  of  the  ecclesiastical 
property  sorely  displeased  the  Lutheran  princes.  Saxony 
and  Brandenburg  beheld  with  pain  the  archbishoprics  and 
bishoprics  in  the  north  torn  from  their  families  and  bestowed 
upon  the  Archduke  Leopold,  Hildesheim  on  Prince  Ferdinand 
of  Bavaria,  elector  of  Cologne,  Minden  and  Verdun  on  Francis 
William,  Count  von  Wurtemberg  (a  side-branch  of  the  Bava- 
rian dynasty),  who,  as  commissioner  for  the  whole  of  North- 
ern Germany,  superintended  the  execution  of  the  edict.  But 
their  dread  of  Wallenstein  smoothed  every  difficulty.  The 
elector  of  Saxony  and  all  the  Lutheran  princes,  bribed  with 
Wallenstein's  dismissal,  gave  their  consent  to  the  edict  and 
tolerated  its  transgression  in  the  free  imperial  cities.  The 
complaints  against  his  administration  were  studiously  brought 
forward,  as  if  to  veil  the  robberies  committed  under  the  edict. 
The  duke  of  Friedland  was  made  the  scapegoat  for  the  crimes 
of  others.  The  man  to  whom  the  emperor  owed  all  he  pos- 
sessed was  dismissed  in  1630.  Nor  was  this  the  least  im- 
portant triumph  of  the  princely  aristocracy  over  all  the  con- 
tending parties  in  Germany  in  the  course  of  this  century. 
The  hope  of  restoring  the  unity  of  the  empire  was  once  more 
frustrated  and  the  ancient  polyarchy  saved. 


1008  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

Gustavus  Adolphus,  king  of  Sweden,  landed  at  this  con- 
juncture on  the  coast  of  Pomerania.  His  arrival  was  viewed 
with  pleasure  by  the  cabinet  of  Vienna,  as  a  means  of  hum- 
bling Bavaria  and  the  League,  and,  in  case  of  necessity, 
Wallenstein  would  still  be  able  to  raise  the  Austrian  stand- 
ard when  Bavaria  and  Sweden  should  have  mutually  weak- 
ened one  another.  Wallenstein's  offer  to  defend  the  coasts 
in  his  right  as  Prince  of  Mecklenburg  was  rejected,  and  he 
withdrew,  with  the  wealth  he  had  amassed,  to  Prague. 

A  groundless  fear  of  opposition  on  the  part  of  Wallen- 
stein had  induced  the  emperor  to  draw  off  twenty  thousand 
of  his  men,  and  to  send  them  into  Italy  in  order  to  secure  to 
the  imperial  house  the  succession  to  the  duchy  of  Mantua, 
to  which  Charles,  duke  of  Nevers,  a  French  prince,  laid 
claim.  France  eagerly  seized  this  opportunity  to  take  a 
footing  in  Italy.  The  pope,  Urban  VIII.,  a  worldly-minded, 
warlike,  intriguing  prince,  and  Venice,  alarmed  at  the  em- 
peror's successes  in  Germany,  and  dreading  anew  the  su- 
premacy of  Austria  in  Italy,  leagued  with  France  and 
countenanced  the  invasion  of  Northern  Germany  by  Sweden. 
The  concessions  made  by  the  emperor  to  Bavaria  probably 
arose  from  a  dread  of  Maximilian's  open  accession  to  this 
dangerous  confederacy.  Ferdinand,  meanwhile,  enraged  at 
the  defiance  of  his  power  by  the  Italians,  levied  a  numerous 
body  of  troops  for  the  relief  of  Spinola,  who  with  difficulty 
kept  his  ground  in  Upper  Italy,  and,  after  gallantly  defend- 
ing Casale,  died  of  chagrin,  caused  by  the  ingratitude  with 
which  he  was  treated  by  the  Spanish  court.  The  imperial- 
ists were  victorious,  took  Mantua,  which  was  strongly  forti- 
fied, by  storm,  and  committed  the  most  horrid  outrages  in 
the  city  and  its  vicinity.  The  duchy  was,  nevertheless, 
ceded  to  Nevers  for  the  purpose  of  conciliating  France  and 
of  securing  the  allegiance  of  Bavaria,  which  threatened  to 
side  with  France  unless  Mantua  was  sacrificed.  The  acces- 
sion of  Savoy  to  his  party,  through  dread  of  the  supremacy 
of  France,  little  availed  the  emperor,  that  duke  being  com- 
pelled to  cede  to  France  some  of  the  most  important  pas- 


THE   THIRTY    YEARS     WAR  1009 

cages  into  Italy,  Piquerol,  Riva,  and  Perouse.  In  this  war, 
six  thousand  Swiss  fought  under  French  colors.  It  also 
appears  that  the  Catholic  generals  at  that  period  in  Italy, 
Gallas,  Altringer,  Colalto,  Egon  von  Furstenberg,  entered 
into  the  Jesuitical  conspiracy  and  were  ever  false  friends  to 
Wallenstein.  George  von  Luneburg,  who  had  been  sent 
to  Italy,  and  had  there  become  acquainted  with  the  treach- 
erous projects  cherished  by  the  pope  and  the  Jesuits  and  the 
checkered  fate  of  his  inheritance,  repented  of  his  treason, 
sought  a  pretext  for  his  return,  and  fled  to  the  Swede. 

The  cowardly  Lutheran  princes,  before  the  dissolution  of 
the  council  of  princes  at  Ratisbon,  deemed  themselves  called 
upon  to  make  some  demonstration  in  favor  of  their  oppressed 
religion,  and — protested  against  the  improved  Gregorian 
calendar,  for  which  they  evinced  far  deeper  horror  than  for 
the  edict  of  restitution. 

CCVII.    Oustavus  Adolphus 

From  Holland  to  the  mountains  of  Carniola,  from  Prussia 
to  the  Bernese  Alps,  wherever  German  was  spoken,  had  the 
tenets  of  Luther  and  Calvin  spread  and  found  a  harbor  in 
the  hearts  of  the  people.  Bavaria  and  the  Tyrol  excepted, 
every  province  throughout  Germany  had  battled  for  liberty 
of  conscience,  and  yet  the  whole  of  Germany,  notwithstand- 
ing her  universal  inclination  for  the  Reformation,  had  been 
deceived  in  her  hopes,  a  second  imperial  edict  seemed  likely 
to  crush  the  few  remaining  privileges  spared  by  the  edict  of 
restitution,  and  Magdeburg  alone,  with  unflinching  perse- 
verance, ventured  to  oppose  the  imperial  commands. 

Gustavus  Adolphus,  one  of  the  most  zealous  and  con- 
scientious of  the  advocates  of  the  Reformation,  reigned  at 
that  time  in  Sweden.  His  father,  Charles,  a  younger  brother 
of  King  John,  of  the  house  of  Wasa,  had  been  placed  on  tlie 
throne  by  the  Protestant  Swedes  instead  of  the  actual  heir, 
Sigismund,  king  of  Poland,  who  had  embraced  Catholicism. 
The  attempt  made  by  Maurice  of  Hesse,  in  1615,  to  place 


1010  THE  HISTORY   OF  GERMANY 

Gustavus,  then  a  youth,  at  the  head  of  the  Union,  had  been 
frustrated  by  the  jealousy  of  Denmark  and  the  war  between 
Sweden  and  Poland,  which  terminated  in  Sigismund's  defeat 
and  the  annexation  of  Livonia  to  Sweden.  Riga  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  Swedish  monarch  in  1621.  Elbing  shared 
the  same  fate.  Dantzig  offered  a  successful  resistance.  The 
elector  of  Brandenburg,  Poland's  vassal,  preserved  a  strict 
neutrality.  Gustavus,  on  the  defeat  of  Denmark,  no  longer 
hesitated  in  joining  the  German  Protestants.  His  flag  speed- 
ily waved  in  Stralsund.  Arnheim  (Arnim),  sent  by  Wallen- 
stein  to  the  aid  of  Poland,  was  at  first  successful,  but  was 
afterward  defeated  at  Marienburg  by  Gustavus,  whose  army 
was  reinforced  by  numbers  of  imperial  deserters.  The 
elector  of  Brandenburg,  bribed  by  the  cession  of  Marien- 
burg and  Werder,  forgot  his  jealousy  and  passed  from  neu- 
trality to  demonstrations  of  amity.  Peace  was,  by  the  in- 
tervention of  France,  finally  concluded  with  Poland  and 
Denmark,  and  Gustavus,  urged  by  his  sincere  piety,  re- 
solved to  take  up  arms  in  defence  of  Protestantism  and  to 
free  Germany  from  the  yoke  imposed  by  the  Jesuits.  The 
love  of  fame  and  the  chance  of  placing  the  imperial  crown 
on  his  own  brow  were  other  but  secondary  inducements. 
His  military  genius,  developed  in  the  war  with  Poland,  the 
internal  state  of  Germany,  and  the  excellence  of  his  well- 
disciplined  troops,  inured  to  hardship  and  fatigue,  accus- 
tomed to  victory,  and  filled  with  enthusiasm  for  their  faith 
and  for  their  king,  vouched  for  his  success.  In  his  army 
were  several  German  refugees  of  distinction,  the  gray- headed 
Count  Thurn  and  his  gallant  son,  who  died  of  fever  during 
this  expedition,  Otto  Louis,  Rheingrave  of  Salm,  and  the 
three  brave  Livonian  brothers,  Rosen.  The  cause  for  which 
he  fought  had,  it  is  true,  gained  for  him  the  hearts  of  the 
Protestant  population  throughout  Germany;  his  arrival  was, 
nevertheless,  viewed  with  greater  dissatisfaction  by  the  Prot- 
estant princes  than  by  either  of  the  Catholic  parties.  The 
League,  France,  Bavaria,  and  the  pope  hoped,  by  means  of 
the  Swede,  to  reduce  the  emperor  to  submission,  while  the 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR  1011 

emperor  and  Wallenstein  on  their  side  secretly  aimed  at 
weakening  the  League  by  similar  means;  both  sides,  conse- 
quently, greatly  favored  Gustavus's  chance  of  success  by 
their  hesitation  in  taking  strong  measures  against  him.  The 
greatest  obstacles  were,  on  the  contrary,  thrown  in  his  way 
by  the  Protestant  princes,  whom  he  came  to  defend,  and  who 
refused  to  second  his  efforts.  The  extension  and  confirma- 
tion of  the  power  of  Sweden  to  the  north  were,  in  point  of 
fact,  at  the  sole  expense  of  Brandenburg,  of  the  house  of 
Guelph,  and  of  that  of  Saxony.  The  jealousy  with  which 
the  German  princes  viewed  the  entry  of  a  warlike  and  pow- 
erful neighbor  on  their  territory  was  also  natural;  their  late 
reconciliation  with  the  emperor,  moreover,  rendered  them 
peculiarly  disinclined  to  favor  the  Swedish  expedition,  by 
which  the  flames  of  war  were  again  to  be  lighted  throughout 
unhappy  Germany,  where  every  province,  ancient  Bavaria 
and  the  Tyrol  alone  excepted,  had  been  ravaged  by  fire, 
sword,  and  pillage  during  the  religious  war.  A  dreadful 
famine,  caused  by  the  Mansfeld  expedition,  by  the  rapine  of 
Wallenstein 's  soldiery,  and  by  the  pillage  carried  on  by  the 
Jesuits,  raged  in  Silesia;  the  citizens  and  peasantry  died  by 
thousands  of  starvation,  and  many  instances  occurred  of 
parents  devouring  their  children,  and  of  brethren  destroying 
one  another  for  the  last  mouthful  of  bread.  This  misery, 
fearful  as  it  was,  was,  however,  a  mere  prelude  to  the  hor- 
rors that  ensued.  The  arrival  of  the  Swedish  king  was  but 
the  opening  of  the  war. 

Gustavus  Adolphus  cast  anchor  on  June  24,  1630,  the 
anniversary  of  the  Confession  of  Augsburg,  near  to  the  little 
island  of  Ruden,  and  landed,  during  a  violent  thunderstorm, 
at  Usedom.  His  army  consisted  of  sixteen  thousand  men, 
comprising  forty  German  companies,  under  Colonels  Fal ken- 
berg,  Diedrich,  Holl,  Kniphausen,  and  Mitchefahl.  His  first 
object  was  to  take  firm  footing  in  Pomerania  and  Mecklen- 
burg. Bozislaw,  duke  of  Pomerania,  was,  accordingly,  com- 
pelled to  join  his  cause,  and  the  imperial  garrisons  were 
driven  out  of  the  minor  towns  during  the  winter  of  1631. 


1012  THE   HISTORY   OF  GERMANY 

Torquato  Conti,  the  imperial  stadtholder  in  Pomerania,  un- 
able to  keep  bis  ground,  laid  the  whole  country  waste  during 
his  retreat.  Tilly  evinced  no  anxiety  to  oppose  the  advance 
of  the  Swedes,  but  Pappenheim,  unable  to  restrain  his  impa- 
tience, attacked  Charles,  duke  of  Lauenburg,  who  had  ven- 
tured, in  the  service  of  the  Swedes,  as  far  as  Ratzeburg,  and 
carried  him  off  prisoner.  New  Brandenburg,  Demmin,  where 
he  took  Duke  di  Savelli  captive,  Gartz,  Wolgast,  Anclam, 
Stargard,  Colberg,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Swedish  king. 
Mecklenburg,  and  the  ancient  Hanse  towns,  Griefswald  and 
Rostock,  were  still  maintained  by  the  imperialists. 

The  vain  negotiations  between  Bavaria,  the  pope,  and 
France  were  at  length  terminated  by  the  necessity  of  oppos- 
ing the  Swedes,  and  Tilly  received  orders  to  take  the  field. 
New  Brandenburg  was  speedily  retaken,  but  the  perfidy  with 
which  he,  contrary  to  the  terms  of  capitulation,  butchered 
two  thousand  of  the  Swedes,  was  bitterly  avenged  on  the 
capture  of  Frankfort  on  the  Oder  by  Gustavus,  who,  as  a 
warning  to  Tilly  to  desist  from  imitating  the  cruel  practices 
of  the  Croatians  during  war,  put  two  thousand  of  the  im- 
perialists to  the  sword.  Numbers  of  the  fugitives  were 
drowned  in  the  Oder,  the  bridge  giving  way  beneath  the 
crowd. 

A  treaty  was,  meanwhile,  concluded  at  Baerwald  between 
Gustavus  and  the  French  monarch,  who  promised  to  pay 
him  annually  the  sum  of  four  hundred  thousand  dollars  and 
to  grant  him  his  aid,  now  rendered  requisite  owing  to  the 
lukewarmness  of  the  Lutheran  princes;  and  Gustavus,  deeply 
disgusted  at  their  conduct,  was  alone  withheld  from  aban- 
doning his  purpose,  from  returning  to  Sweden  and  coming 
to  terms  with  the  emperor,  by  the  consciousness  that  to  him 
alone  did  Magdeburg  and  the  people  throughout  Germany 
look  for  succor.  The  electors  of  Brandenburg  and  Saxony 
brought  about  a  council  of  princes  at  Leipzig,  in  which  they 
sought  to  persuade  the  princes  of  Northern  Germany,  Lu- 
therans and  Calvinists,  who,  on  this  occasion,  offered  an 
example  of  rare  unity,  to  maintain  a  system  of  armed  neu- 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR  1013 

trality  and  to  await  the  course  of  events,  in  order  to  turn 
them  to  their  own  advantage.  The  emperor,  who,  mean- 
while, pursued  a  similar  policy,  made  every  effort  to  gain 
over  the  neutral  princes,  more  particularly  Saxony,  who,  in 
return,  insolently  renewed  his  ancient  complaints.  The 
urgent  entreaties  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  for  aid  from  Saxony 
before  Magdeburg  fell  were  equally  futile;  the  elector  shared 
the  hatred  cherished  by  the  rest  of  the  princes  against  the 
free  towns  and  gloried  in  their  destruction.  The  citizens  of 
Magdeburg,  meanwhile,  performed  prodigies  of  valor.  Al- 
though twice  besieged  since  1629  by  Altringer  and  by  Pap- 
penheim,  they  repulsed,  unaided,  every  attack.  As  early  as 
1621,  the  citizens  had  given  themselves  a  more  liberal  con- 
stitution, and  it  was  not  until  they  were  threatened  with 
destruction  that  an  imperial  party  created  a  schism  among 
them.  Falkenberg  was  sent  by  Gustavus  to  take  the  com- 
mand of  the  city,  which  he  entered  after  passing  through  the 
enemy's  camp  disguised  as  a  skipper.  The  princes  of  Hesse 
and  Weimar  were  alone  withheld  from  aiding  the  city  by 
their  inability  to  cope  with  Tilly,  who,  at  the  head  of  an 
immense  body  of  troops,  closely  blockaded  the  walls,  and, 
notwithstanding  the  desperate  defence  made  by  the  citizens, 
gradually  took  all  the  outworks.  During  the  night  of  May 
20,  1631,  while  Falkenberg  was  engaged  in  the  council-house 
opposing  the  imperial  party  among  the  citizens,  who  loudly 
insisted  upon  capitulating,  Pappenheim,  unknown  to  Tilly, 
mounted  an  unguarded  part  of  the  walls,  and,  being  speedily 
followed  by  the  rest  of  the  imperial  troops,  poured  suddenly 
through  the  streets.  Falkenberg  instantly  rushed  to  the 
rencounter  and  was  shot.  The  citizens,  although  without  a 
leader  or  a  plan  of  defence,  fought  from  street  to  street  with 
all  the  energy  of  despair,  until  overwhelmed  by  numbers. 
The  soldiery,  maddened  by  opposition,  spared  neither  age 
nor  sex.  Some  of  the  officers,  who  entreated  Tilly  to  put  a 
stop  to  the  massacre,  were  told  to  return  to  him  on  the  ex- 
piration of  an  hour.  The  most  horrid  scenes  were  mean- 
while enacted.     Every  man  in  the  city  was  killed,  numbers 


1014  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

of  women  cast  themselves  headlong  into  the  Elbe  and  into 
the  flames  of  the  burning  houses  in  order  to  escape  the  bru- 
tality of  the  soldiery;  fifty- three  women  were  beheaded  by 
the  Croatians  while  kneeling  in  the  church  of  St.  Catherine. 
One  Croat  boasted  of  having  stuck  twenty  babes  on  his  pike. 
One  hundred  and  thirty-seven  houses  and  the  fireproof  cathe- 
dral, in  which  four  thousand  men  took  refuge,  were  all  that 
remained  of  the  proud  city.  The  rest  of  the  inhabitants  had 
fallen  victims  to  the  sword  or  to  the  flames.  The  slaughter 
continued  until  the  22d,  when  Tilly  appeared  and  restored 
discipline  and  order.  The  refugees  in  the  cathedral  were 
pardoned  and  for  the  first  time  for  three  days  received  food. 
Tilly,  a  tall,  haggard-looking  man,  dressed  in  a  short  slashed 
green  satin  jacket,  with  a  long  red  feather  in  his  high- 
crowned  hat,  with  large  bright  eyes  peering  from  beneath 
his  deeply  furrowed  brow,  a  stiff  mustache  under  his  pointed 
nose,  ghastly,  hollow-cheeked,  and  with  a  seeming  affecta- 
tion of  wildness  in  his  whole  appearance,  sat,  mounted  on  a 
bony  charger,  on  the  ruins  of  Magdeburg,  proudly  looking 
upon  the  thirty  thousand  bodies  of  the  brave  citizens  now 
stiffening  in  death,  which,  at  his  command,  were  cast  into 
the  Elbe.  The  river  was  choked  up  by  the  mass  near  the 
Keustadt. 

The  news  of  this  disaster  filled  Gustavus  with  rage  and 
sorrow,  and,  probably  reckoning  upon  aid  from  the  people, 
panic-struck  by  the  destruction  of  Magdeburg,  in  case  the 
princes  still  maintained  their  neutrality,  he  entered  Prussia, 
surrounded  Berlin,  and,  stationing  himself  sword  in  hand 
before  the  city  gates,  demanded  a  definite  declaration.  The 
relation  in  which  he  stood  with  the  elector,  George  William, 
was  somewhat  extraordinary.  This  prince  had  an  extremely 
beautiful  sister,  named  Eleonore,  whose  hand  had,  ten  years 
before  the  present  period,  been  demanded  by  Wladislaw  of 
Poland  and  by  the  Swedish  monarch,  then  the  bitterest  foes. 
The  elector,  who  merely  held  Prussia  in  fee  of  Poland,  nat- 
urally favored  the  former  suitor,  but  Gustavus,  habitually 
bold  and   daring,  visited  Berlin  in   1620,  during  the  elec- 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR  1015 

tor's  absence,  gained  the  princess's  affection,  and  returned 
with  her  as  his  queen  to  Stockholm.  The  Polish  king,  in 
revenge,  incited  the  fanatical  Lutherans  in  Prussia  against 
the  elector.  Jsegerndorf,  the  heritage  of  Brandenburg,  was, 
on  the  other  hand,  bestowed  by  the  emperor  on  Lichtenstein, 
but  the  elector,  instead  of  openly  ranging  himself  on  the  side 
of  his  brother-in-law,  allowed  himself  to  be  swayed  on  the 
one  hand  by  his  dread  of  Poland,  while  on  the  other  he  was 
identified  with  the  imperial  party  by  the  intrigues  of  his 
minister,  Adam  von  Schwarzenberg,  a  tool  of  the  Jesuits, 
and  by  those  of  his  favorite,  Conrad  von  Burgsdorf.  The 
female  part  of  the  family,  encouraged  by  the  presence  of 
Gustavus,  now  opposed  the  obnoxious  favorites,  and  the 
elector,  to  whom  the  Swedish  monarch  offered  the  alterna- 
tive of  his  alliance  or  the  reduction  of  Berlin  to  a  heap  of 
ashes,  was  compelled  to  yield.  Berlin,  Spandau,  and  Kus- 
trin  were  garrisoned  by  the  Swedes. 

The  cruel  persecution  was,  meanwhile,  unavailing  totally 
to  repress  the  courage  of  the  citizens  and  the  peasant.  Stras- 
burg  followed  Magdeburg's  glorious  example  and  took  up 
arms  in  defence  of  the  gospel.  Numbers  of  Swabians,  trem- 
blingly countenanced  by  the  regent  of  Wurtemberg,  Julius 
Frederick,  flocked  to  the  aid  of  their  brethren  in  belief. 
Egon  von  Furstenberg  was,  consequently,  recalled  from 
Mantua  and  despatched  by  the  emperor  into  Swabia,  at  the 
head  of  fifteen  thousand  men.  Memmingen,  Kempten,  and 
the  little  Protestant  settlement  of  Austrian  refugees,  Freu- 
denstadt  in  the  Black  Forest,  fell  a  prey  to  the  license  of  his 
soldiery.  Julius  Frederick  yielded  without  a  blow.  Stras- 
burg,  nevertheless,  proved  impregnable,  and  Furstenberg 
hastened  to  join  his  forces  with  those  of  Tilly,  at  that  time 
hard  pushed  in  the  north.  The  insurgent  peasantry  of  the 
Harz  had  greatly  harassed  him  on  his  passage  through  the 
mountains.  His  invasion  of  Hesse  had  been  opposed  by 
the  Landgrave  William.  The  important  fortress  of  Wesel 
had  been  taken  by  the  Dutch.  Gustavus  had  also  advanced 
to  the  Elbe  and  intrenched  himself  near  Werben,  where 


1016  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

Tilly,  venturing  an  attack,  was  repulsed  with  considerable 
loss.  The  troops  under  Furstenberg,  Altringer,  etc.,  sent 
to  his  aid  by  the  emperor,  alone  enabled  him  to  make  head 
against  the  Swede;  this  aid  was,  however,  coupled  with  the 
condition  of  the  pillage  of  Saxony  in  order  to  imbitter 
the  wavering  elector,  John  George,  against  Bavaria  and 
the  League,  and  to  compel  him  to  declare  himself.  Halle, 
Merseberg,  Zeiz,  Weissenfels,  Naumburg  were,  accordingly, 
plundered,  and  the  great  plain  of  Leipzig  was  laid  waste. 
John  George,  roused  by  this  proceeding,  obeyed  the  pressure 
of  circumstances  and  fulfilled  the  warmest  wishes  of  his 
Protestant  subjects  by  entering  into  alliance  with  Sweden. 
Arnheim,  who  had  quitted  the  imperial  service,  and  whose 
diplomatic  talents  well  suited  the  intriguing  Saxon  court, 
was  placed  at  the  head  of  his  troops.  Eighteen  thousand 
Saxons  coalesced  with  the  Swedish  army  near  Duben  on  the 
Heath,  and  the  confederated  troops  marched  upon  Leipzig, 
which  had  just  fallen  into  Tilly's  hands. 

The  Swedes  and  imperialists  stood  opposed  to  each  other 
for  the  first  time  on  the  broad  plains  of  Leipzig.    The  Swedes 
were  distinguished  by  their  light  (chiefly  blue)  coats,  by  the 
absence  of  armor,  their  active  movements,  and  light  artil 
lery:  the  imperialists,  by  their  old-fashioned  close-fitting  (gen 
erally  yellow)  uniforms,  besides  armor,   such  as  cuirasses 
thigh-pieces,  and  helmets,  their  want  of  order  and  discipline 
their  slower  movements,  and  their  awkward,  heavy  artillery 
The  battle  was  commenced,    contrary   to  the  intention   of 
Tilly,  who  awaited  the  arrival  of  the  corps  under  Altringer 
and  Fugger  (Furstenberg  had  already  joined  him),  by  Pap- 
penheim,    who,    being   attacked  while  reconnoitring,    Tilly 
was  compelled  to   hasten  to  his  aid.     Gustavus  Adolphus, 
dressed  in  a  simple  gray  great- coat,  with  a  green  feather  in 
his  white  hat,  rode  along  the  Swedish  ranks  animating  his 
men  to  the  fight.     The  Swedes  were  stationed  in  the  right 
wing,  the  Saxons  in  the  left.     Tilly's  army  was  drawn  up, 
according  to  ancient  custom,  in  one  long  line;  that  of  Gus- 
tavus was,  on  the  contrary,  separated  into  small  movable 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'   WAR  1017 

masses,  which,  marching  off  to  the  right  and  left,  charged 
Tilly's  flank.  Adolf  von  Holstein  unwarily  advancing,  was 
consequently  taken  between  two  lires,  his  whole  corps  de- 
stroyed, and  himself  mortally  wounded.  The  Pappenheim 
cuirassiers  were  seven  times  repulsed.  The  Saxons'  wing 
was  turned  by  Tilly,  but  the  Swedes,  falling  on  his  flank, 
captured  his  artillery,  turned  it  upon  him  and  beat  him  off 
the  field,  September  7,  1631.  The  imperialists  fled  in  wild 
confusion  to  Halberstadt,  where  Tilly,  who  had  been  rescued 
by  Rudolf,  duke  of  Luneburg,  and  the  Walloons,  who,  since 
the  revolt  of  the  Netherlands,  had  fought  with  distinction  in 
the  Catholic  cause,  collected  the  remnant  of  his  army. 

The  Saxon  peasantry,  filled  with  confidence  at  Tilly's 
defeat,  rose  throughout  the  country,  killed  all  the  fugitives 
from  the  imperial  army,  and  flocked  in  numbers  under  the 
Swedish  banner.  The  princes  even  regained  courage,  and 
all  the  minor  aristocracy  came  in  person  to  offer  their  aid. 
The  road  to  Vienna  lay  open.  The  annihilation  of  the  im- 
perial power  and  the  rain  of  the  house  of  Habsburg  appeared 
inevitable.  France,  and  even  the  pope,  Urban  VIII. ,  were, 
consequently,  zealous  in  their  efforts  to  bring  about  a  recon- 
ciliation between  Sweden  and  Bavaria,  but  Gustavus,  aware 
of  the  enthusiasm  with  which  he  was  regarded  by  the  whole 
of  Protestant  Germany,  too  noble  to  sacrifice  the  cause  of 
religion  to  an  intriguing  pontiff,  and  the  German  empire  to 
French  rapacity,  acted  in  the  spirit  of  a  future,  Protestant 
emperor,  and,  instead  of  joining  the  Catholic  and  anti-impe- 
rial League,  unhesitatingly  fell  upon  it,  crushed  Bavaria,  in- 
timidated France,  and  freed  himself  on  every  side  before 
attempting  to  annihilate  the  little  remaining  power  of  the 
Habsburg.  George  von  Luneburg  was  sent  into  Brunswick 
to  regain  that  province  with  troops  that  were  still  unlevied. 
Baudis,  General  Banner,  and  William,  Landgrave  of  Hesse, 
were  ordered  to  support  him  and  to  purge  the  whole  of 
Northern  Germany  of  the  Leaguers.  Gustavus  marched  in 
person  through  Merseberg,  where  he  cut  to  pieces  two  thou- 
sand of  the  imperialists,  and  Erfurt,  where  he  was  received 

Germany.     Vol.  III. — 5 


1018  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

with  open  arms,  through  the  Thuringian  forest  to  Bamberg 
and  Wurzburg,  the  latter  of  which  he  took  by  storm.  The 
garrison  and  a  number  of  monks  were  put  to  death.  The  in- 
tervention of  France  was  a  second  time  refused  by  the  Swe- 
dish conqueror,  who  advanced  on  the  Rhine  with  the  inten- 
tion of  throwing  himself  between  France  and  Bavaria,  of 
aiding  the  Dutch,  and  of  liberating  the  Protestants  in  Upper 
Germany.  Hanau,  Aschaffenburg,  Rotenburg  opened  their 
gates  to  him.  Frankfort  on  the  Maine  was  entered  in  tri- 
umph. Mayence  was  taken.  The  archbishop,  Anselm  Cas- 
imir,  fled.  Charles  of  Lorraine,  who  still  maintained  his 
position  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine,  and  the  imperial 
Colonel  Ossa,  on  the  right,  were  repulsed.  Spires,  Landau, 
and  numerous  other  towns  opened  their  gates  to  the  Swedes. 
The  fortresses  of  Kcenigstein,  Mannheim,  Kreuznach,  Bach- 
arach,  and  Kirchberg  fell  into  their  hands.  The  whole  of 
the  Pfalz  was  once  more  freed  from  the  Spanish  yoke.  The 
garrison  of  Heidelberg,  under  Henry  von  Metternich,  alone 
held  out.  The  arrival  of  the  Swedes  was  hailed  with  open 
demonstrations  of  delight  along  the  Neckar  and  the  Rhine. 
Horn,  sent  by  Gustavus  into  Swabia,  took  Mannheim,  Op- 
pcnheim,  Heilbronn,  and  Mergentheim,  and  extirpated  the 
bands  of  robbers,  composed  of  the  fugitive  troops  of  Charles 
of  Lorraine.  The  Pfalzgraf,  Christian  von  Birkenfeld,  raised 
troops  for  the  Swedish  army.  Frederick,  the  ex- Pfalz- 
graf and  ex-king  of  Bohemia,  returned,  but  was  not  for- 
mally reinstated  by  Gustavus,  who  hoped  by  this  refusal 
to  spur  England  into  action.  The  queen  of  Sweden,  Eleo- 
nore,  also  came  to  Frankfort  to  share  her  husband's  triumph. ' 
"The  old  devil"  Tilly,  as  Gustavus  wrote  to  the  Pfalz- 
graf, meanwhile  retook  the  field.  Rotenburg  on  the  Tauber 
and  Bamberg  once  more  changed  masters,  but  he  was  com- 
pelled to  raise  the  siege  of  Wurzburg  m  order  to  cover  Ba- 
varia against  Gustavus,  while  Pappenheim  threw   himself 


1  On  meeting  him,  she  threw  her  arms  around  him,  and,  holding  him  fast  in 
her  embrace,  exclaimed,  "'Now  is  Gustavus  the  Great  a  prisoner  1" 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR  1019 

alone  into  Northern  Germany.  Donauwoerth  fell.  The  bat- 
tie  of  Bain  on  the  Lech,  where  Tilly  and  Maximilian  had  in- 
trenched themselves,  proved  fatal  to  the  former;  a  cannon- 
ball  shattered  his  thigh,  and  he  expired  in  excruciating 
agonies  in  1632.  His  last  injunction  to  Maximilian,  at  any 
price  to  garrison  Ratisbon,  the  key  to  Bohemia,  Austria, 
and  Bavaria,  without  delay,  was  instantly  obeyed.  Horn 
was  already  en  route  thither,  but  was  forestalled  by  the 
Bavarian  duke,  who  threw  himself  with  his  troops,  disguised 
as  Swedes,  under  cover  of  the  night,  into  that  city. 

Gustavus,  after  restoring  liberty  of  conscience  to  Augs- 
burg, and  receiving  the  homage  of  the  citizens,  entered  Mu- 
nich, which  surrendered  at  discretion,  in  triumph  with  the 
ex- king  of  Bohemia  and  Queen  Eleonore,  at  whose  side  rode 
a  monkey  with  a  shaven  crown,  in  a  Capuchin's  gown,  and 
with  a  rosary  in  his  paws.  A  fine  of  forty  thousand  dollars 
was  laid  upon  the  town.  One  hundred  and  forty  cannons, 
within  which  thirty  thousand  ducats  and  a  quantity  of  pre- 
cious stones  were  concealed,  and  which  had  been  buried  for 
security,  were  betrayed  into  the  hands  of  the  conqueror. 
Maximilian's  proposals  for  peace  were  scornfully  rejected. 

CCVIII.    Wallensteins  Second  Command — The  Battle  of 

Lutzen — The  lieilbronn  Confederacy — Death 

of   Wallenstein 

The  advance  of  the  Swedish  king,  who,  during  his  Rhen- 
ish conquests,  had  afforded  the  emperor  time  to  create  a  most 
dangerous  diversion,  now  received  a  check. 

In  Northern  Germany,  the  imperial  garrisons  of  Rostock 
and  Wismar  had  capitulated,  but  Gronsfeld  still  kept  the 
field,  George  von  Luneburg,  unaided  by  his  brother,  having 
with  extreme  difficulty  succeeded  in  setting  an  army  on  foot. 
William  of  Hesse  also  met  with  little  success.  The  Dutch 
took  Maestricht.  Pappenheim  appeared  in  the  Netherlands, 
but  a  dispute  arising  between  him  and  the  Spanish  leaders, 
he  returned  to  Central  Germany,  where  his  presence  was 


1020  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

loudly  called  for.  He  retook  Hildesheim  en  route. —The 
arrival  of  the  Swedes  had  roused  the  fanaticism  of  the  Cath- 
olic population  in  the  South,  and  a  general  rising,  similar  to 
that  of  the  Lutheran  peasantry  against  the  Catholic  soldiery 
in  Hesse  and  the  Harz,  took  place  among  the  Catholic  peas- 
antry against  the  Swedes.  In  Bavaria,  every  straggler  from 
the  mam  body  was  murdered  by  the  country  people;  in  Weis- 
senburg,  one  thousand  men,  who  capitulated,  were  butchered. 
Ossa  endeavored  to  organize  a  great  insurrection  of  the  peas- 
antry in  Upper  Swabia,  but  was  defeated  at  Biberach  by  the 
Swedes,  in  Bregenz,  by  Bernard  von  Weimar,  and  the  town 
of  Friedstadt,  where  several  Swedes  had  been  murdered  by 
the  people,  was  burned  to  the  ground  by  General  Banner, 
and  all  the  inhabitants  were  put  to  the  sword.  Horn,  on 
the  other  hand,  laid  siege  to  Constance. 

The  movement  to  the  rear  of  the  Swedes  was,  neverthe- 
less, of  far  less  importance  than  the  proceedings  of  France. 
Richelieu,  after  vainly  urging  Gustavus  to  spare  Bavaria 
and  to  direct  his  whole  force  against  the  emperor,  had 
thrown  fresh  troops  into  Lorraine  and  the  electorate  of 
Treves,  whose  prince,  Philip  Christopher,  had  voluntarily 
placed  himself  beneath  his  protection,  and  Gustavus,  who 
was  on  the  point  of  conquering  Bavaria  and  Austria,  was 
compelled  to  permit  the  occupation  of  Coblentz,  Ehrenbreit- 
stem,  and  Philipsburg,  by  the  French. 

Maximilian,  whose  correspondence  with  Richelieu  had 
been  intercepted  by  the  imperialists  and  sent  to  Vienna, 
now  saw  himself  constrained  to  cast  himself  unconditionally 
into  the  arms  of  the  emperor.  The  Upper  Austrian  peas- 
antry, attracted  by  the  approach  of  the  great  northern  mag- 
net, once  more  dreamed  of  liberty,  and  six  thousand  men 
had  already  taken  up  arms  in  the  Hausruckviertel,  when 
the  news  of  the  return  of  the  Swedes  northward  once  more 
crushed  their  hopes. 

The  elector  of  Saxony  had  gone  into  Bohemia;  Arnheim 
into  Silesia.     The  imperial  forces,  in   this  quarter  numer 
ically  weak,  fell  back.     Schaumburg  was  beaten  at  Steinau 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR  1021 

in  Silesia.  The  retreat  of  the  Croatians  was  traced  by  rapine 
and  desolation.  The  elector  entered  Prague  with  a  number 
of  Bohemian  prisoners.  Wallenstein  had  withdrawn  to 
Znaym.  On  the  death  of  Tilly,  the  rapid  advance  of  the 
Swedes  and  the  threatening  aspect  of  Hungary,  where  a 
new  popular  leader,  Ragoczy,  had  arisen,  all  seemed  lost. 
The  intrigues  of  France,  Bavaria,  and  the  pope,  compelled 
the  emperor  to  seek  for  aid  in  his  own  resources,  and,  not- 
withstanding the  efforts  of  the  Jesuits  and  of  Spain,  again 
to  have  recourse  to  Wallenstein,  who,  the  moment  of  danger 
passed,  was  once  more  to  be  thrown  aside  and  to  be  sacri- 
ficed to  the  Jesuitical  party.  Wallenstein,  fully  aware  of  the 
emperor's  design,  coldly  refused  his  aid  until  his  demands, 
justified  by  "the  weakness  and  disunion  of  the  empire,  the 
duplicity  of  his  friends,  the  perfidy  of  the  confederates,  the 
anarchy  consequent  on  polyarchy,  the  necessity  of  sole  com- 
mand, of  a  dictatorship,"  had  been  complied  with.  His  con- 
ditions, that  the  imperial  troops  throughout  Germany  should 
be  placed  wholly  and  solely  under  his  command;  that  the 
emperor  should  in  no  wise  interfere  with  military  affairs; 
that  every  conquest  made  by  him  should  be  entirely  at  his 
own  disposal;  that  he  should  be  compensated  by  the  formal 
grant  of  one  of  the  hereditary  provinces  of  Austria  and  of 
another,  that  he  should  be  empowered  to  confiscate  whatever 
property  he  chose  for  the  maintenance  of  his  troops;  were 
conceded  by  the  emperor  on  the  day  on  which  his  rival, 
Tilly,  expired,  April,  1632,  and  within  a  few  months  his 
wonderful  genius  had,  as  if  by  magic,  raised  a  fresh  and 
numerous  army  from  the  clod. 

The  Saxons  were  speedily  driven  out  of  Bohemia.  The 
Voigtlaud  was  ravaged  by  Wallenstein's  infamous  parti- 
san, Hoik,  who  advanced  as  far  as  Dresden  and  burned  the 
neighboring  villages  as  a  bonfire  for  the  elector,  who  was  at 
that  time  solemnizing  a  festival.  Wallenstein  meanwhile 
guarded  Bohemia.  The  entreaties  of  his  ancient  foe,  Maxi- 
milian, for  the  liberation  of  Bavaria,  were  unheeded;  his 
views  for  the  present  turned  upon  Saxony,  and  the  conse- 


1022  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

quent  retreat  of  the  Swedes  northward;  instead,  therefore,  of 
advancing  upon  Bavaria,  he  forced  Maximilian  to  join  him 
at  Eger,  where  he  publicly  embraced  him,  and  marched 
thence  to  Leipzig,  which  shortly  capitulated. 

Wallenstein  had  now  gained  his  purpose.  Gustavus, 
through  dread  of  the  defection  of  the  vacillating  and  timid 
elector,  was  compelled  to  renounce  his  projects  against  the 
South  and  to  turn  his  arms  against  the  imperial  leader;  but, 
unwilling  entirely  to  cede  the  South,  he  took  up  a  strong 
position  with  sixteen  thousand  men  near  Nuremberg,  where 
he  awaited  the  arrival  of  reinforcements.  Wallenstein,  al- 
though at  the  head  of  an  army  of  sixty  thousand  men,  was 
too  well  acquainted  with  the  advantageous  position  of  his 
antagonist  to  hazard  an  attack,  and  took  up  an  equally  im- 
pregnable position  on  the  Old  Mountain  close  to  the  Swedish 
camp.  Three  months  passed  in  inactivity,  and  a  famine  ere 
long  prevailed  both  in  Nuremberg  and  in  Wallenstein'scamp. 
The  peasantry  had  fled  in  every  direction  from  the  pillaging 
troops,  who  destroyed  whatever  they  were  unable  to  carry 
away.  The  Swedes  succeeded  in  seizing  a  large  convoy  of 
provisions  intended  for  Wallenstein,  and  were  shortly  after- 
ward reinforced  by  the  chancellor  oi  Sweden,  Oxenstierna, 
by  Bernard  von  Weimar,  and  by  Banner.  The  Swedish 
army  now  amounted  to  seventy  thousand  men.  Nuremberg, 
Gustavus's  firm  ally,  could  send  thirty  thousand  into  the 
field.  Wallenstein,  who  patiently  awaited  the  destruction 
of  the  enemy  by  famine,  kept  close  within  his  camp.  The 
Swedes  at  length,  rendered  furious  by  want,  attempted  to 
take  the  imperial  camp  by  storm,  but  were  repulsed  with 
dreadful  loss.  The  Swedish  general,  Torstenson,  was  taken 
prisoner,  and  Banner  was  wounded.  The  imperial  general, 
Fugger,  was  killed  while  pursuing  the  Swedes.  Another 
fourteen  days  elapsed,  when  Gustavus,  unable  to  draw  his 
opponent  forth,  was  compelled,  after  losing  twenty  thousand 
men,  and  the  city  of  Nuremberg  ten  thousand  of  her  inhabi- 
tants, to  quit  this  scene  of  death  and  famine.  Pestilence 
had,  however,  raged  with  still  greater  fury  in  Wallenstein  s 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR  1023 

camp,  and  had  cut  his  immense  army  down  to  twenty-four 
thousand  men,  September,  1632. 

Gustavus,  in  the  hope  of  carrying  the  war  into  Bavaria 
and  into  the  heart  of  the  Catholic  states,  marched  south- 
ward; while  Wallenstein,  anxious  to  render  Northern  Ger- 
many the  theatre  of  war,  took  a  contrary  direction.  Leaving 
a  hundred  villages  around  Nuremberg  in  flames,  he  marched, 
with  terror  in  his  van,  through  the  Thuringian  forest  to  Leip- 
zig, which,  panic-stricken,  threw  wide  her  gates.  Pappen- 
heim  joined  him,  but,  unaware  of  the  rapidity  with  which 
Gustavus  had  turned  in  pursuit,  again  set  off  for  Lower  Sax- 
ony. Gustavus,  in  the  hope  of  bringing  Wallenstein  to  an 
engagement  on  the  plains  of  Leipzig,  now  rapidly  advanced 
through  the  country  lately  pillaged  by  his  foe,  and  sum- 
moned his  ally,  George  von  Luneburg,  to  his  assistance. 
The  confidence  of  that  prince  m  the  fortune  of  the  Swede 
had  been,  however,  severely  shaken  by  the  reappearance  of 
Wallenstein,  and  he  refused  to  obey.  Arnheim,  who  had 
quitted  Silesia,  also  tarried  at  Dresden.  At  Erfurt,  Gus- 
tavus bade  adieu  to  his  queen,  Eleonore. 

The  battle  of  Lutzen  commenced  early  in  the  morning  of 
the  6th  of  November,  1632,  not  far  from  the  scene  of  Tilly's 
former  defeat.  Gustavus  would  have  scarcely  ventured, 
without  first  awaiting  the  arrival  of  reinforcements,  to  have 
attacked  Wallenstein,  had  he  not  learned  the  departure  of 
Pappenheim,  who  was  now  hastily  recalled  from  Halle, 
which  he  had  just  reached.  A  thick  fog,  that  lasted  until 
eleven  o'clock,  hindered  the  marshalling  of  the  troops,  and 
gave  the  Pappenheimers  time  to  reach  the  field  before  the 
conclusion  of  the  battle.  Wallenstein,  although  suffering 
from  a  severe  attack  of  gout,  mounted  his  steed  and  drew  up 
his  troops.  His  infantry  was  drawn  up  m  squares,  flanked 
by  cavalry  and  guarded  in  front  by  a  ditch,  defended  by 
artillery.  Gustavus,  without  armor,  on  account  of  a  slight 
wound  he  had  received  at  Dirschau,  and  exclaiming,  "At 
them  in  God's  name!  Jesus!  Jesus!  Jesus!  let  us  vindicate 
to-day  the  honor  of  thy  holy  namel"   brandished  his  sword 


1024  THE    HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

over  his  head  and  charged  the  ditch  at  the  head  of  his  men. 
The  infantry  crossed  and  seized  the  battery.  The  cavalry, 
opposed  by  Wallenstein's  black  cuirassiers,  were  less  suc- 
cessful. "Charge  those  black  fellows!"  shouted  the  king  to 
Colonel  Stalhantsch.  rAt  that  moment  the  Swedish  infantry, 
which  had  already  broken  two  of  the  enemy's  squares,  were 
charged  in  the  flank  by  Wallenstein's  cavalry,  stationed  on 
the  opposite  wing,  and  Gustavus  hurrying  to  their  aid,  the 
cavalry  on  the  nearest  wing  also  bore  down  upon  him.  The 
increasing  density  of  the  fog  unfortunately  veiled  the  ap- 
proach of  the  imperialists,  and  the  king,  falsely  imagining 
himself  followed  by  his  cavalry,  suddenly  found  himself  in 
the  midst  of  the  black  cuirassiers.  His  horse  received  a  shot 
in  the  head,  and  another  broke  his  left  arm.  He  then  asked 
Albert,  duke  of  Saxon- Lauen burg,  who  was  at  his  side,  to 
lead  him  off  the  field,  and,  turning  away,  was  shot  in  the 
back  by  an  imperial  officer.  He  fell  from  his  saddle;  his 
foot  became  entangled  in  the  stirrup,  and  he  was  dragged 
along  by  his  horse,  maddened  with  pain.  The  duke  fled, 
but  Luchau,  the  master  of  the  royal  horse,  shot  the  officer 
who  had  wounded  the  king.  Gustavus,  who  still  lived,  fell 
into  the  hands  of  the  cuirassiers.  His  German  page,  Lubel- 
fing,  a  youth  of  eighteen,  refused  to  tell  his  master's  rank, 
and  was  mortally  wounded.  The  king  was  stripped.  On 
his  exclaiming,  "I  am  the  king  of  Sweden!"  they  attempted 
to  carry  him  off,  but  a  charge  of  the  Swedish  cavalry  com- 
pelling them  to  relinquish  their  prey,  the  last  cuirassier,  as 
he  rushed  past,  shot  him  through  the  head.1 

The  sight  of  the  king's  charger,  covered  with  blood, 
wildly  galloping  along  the  Swedish  front,  confirmed  the  re- 
port of  the  melancholy  fate  of  his  royal  master.  Some  of 
the  Swedish  generals,  more  especially  Kniphausen,  who 
drew  off  his  men  in  reserve,  meditated  a  retreat,  but  Duke 
Bernard  of  Weimar,  spurning  the  idea  with  contempt  and 

1  Gustavus  was  extremely  fine  and  majestic  in  person,  his  eyes  were  blue  and 
gentle  in  expression,  his  manners  commanding,  noble,  and  conciliating.  His 
countenance  was  open  and  attractive. 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR  1025 

calling  loudly  for  vengeance,  placed  himself  at  the  head  of 
a  regiment,  whose  colonel,  a  Swede,  he  ran  through  for  re- 
fusing to  obey  him,  and  regardless,  in  his  enthusiasm,  of  a 
shot  that  carried  away  his  hat,  charged  with  such  impetu- 
osity that  the  ditch  and  the  battery  were  retaken  and  Wal- 
lenstein's  infantry  and  cavalry  were  completely  thrown  into 
confusion.  The  latter  fled;  the  gunpowder  carts  were  blown 
up;  the  day  was  gained.  At  that  moment,  Pappenheim's 
fresh  troops  poured  into  the  field  and  once  more  turned  the 
battle.  The  body  of  the  king,  defended  by  Stalhantsch,  was 
sharply  contested  by  Pappenheim,  who  fell,  pierced  with  two 
bullets.  His  men  fought  with  redoubled  rage  on  the  death 
of  their  commander;  Wallenstein  rallied  his  troops,  and  a 
desperate  conflict  of  some  hours'  duration  ensued,  in  which 
the  flower  of  the  Swedish  army  fell  and  the  ditch  and  bat- 
tery were  lost.  Bernard  was  forced  to  retreat,  and  the  battle 
was  for  the  third  time  renewed  by  Kniphausen's  reserved 
corps,  which  pressed  across  the  ditch,  followed  by  the  rest 
of  the  weary  Swedes.  This  last  and  desperate  charge  was 
irresistible.  Wallenstein,  driven  from  the  field,  fled  across 
the  mountains  to  Bohemia,  and  his  brutal  soldiery  were  scat- 
tered in  every  direction.  Numbers  were  slain  by  the  Prot- 
estant peasantry.  Those  of  his  officers  who  had  first  fled 
were  afterward  put  to  death  at  his  command. 

The  bloody  corpse  of  the  king  was  found  by  the  great 
stone  still  known  as  the  Swedish  Stone.  It  was  laid  in  state 
before  the  whole  of  the  Swedish  army,  which  responded  to 
Bernard's  enthusiastic  address,  with  a  vow  to  follow  him 
wherever  he  led.  This  enthusiasm,  however,  speedily  cooled. 
Bernard's  sole  command  of  the  troops*  was  frustrated  by  the 
jealousy  of  the  Swedish  officers.  In  Sweden,  Gustavus  had 
merely  left  an  infant  daughter,  Christina.  The  ex- king  of 
Bohemia  died  of  horror,  at  Mayence,  on  receiving  the  news 
of  the  death  of  his  friend  and  protector.  His  consort,  Elisa- 
beth Stuart,  resided  for  many  years  afterward  at  fthenen,' 

1   Klisabeth  Stuart  dwelt  foi  a  considerable  period  at  Rhenen  under  the  pro- 
tection of  the  States-gonend,  mourning  for  her  husband,  whose  place  of  burial 


1026  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

near  Utrecht.  The  battle  of  Lutzen  filled  the  imperialists, 
notwithstanding  their  defeat,  with  the  greatest  delight. 
Public  rejoicings  were  held  at  Madrid.  The  emperor,  Fer- 
dinand, discovered  no  immoderate  joy  at  his  success,  and 
even  showed  some  signs  of  pity  on  seeing  the  bloodstained 
collar  of  his  late  foe.  The  pope,  Urban  VIII.,  ordered  a 
mass  to  be  read  for  the  soul  of  the  fallen  monarch,  whose 
power  had  curbed  that  of  the  emperor.  The  emperor's  foes 
have,  at  every  period,  been  regarded  with  secret  good-will 
by  the  pope. 

Axel  Oxenstierna,  Gustavus's  minister  and  his  most  faith- 
ful friend,  became  regent  of  Sweden  during  the  minority  of 
the  queen,  Christina,  and  followed  in  the  footsteps  of  his 
noble  master.  But  he  was  merely  a  statesman,  not  a  mili- 
tary leader;  a  minister,  not  a  king.  Sweden,  instead  of 
placing  a  Protestant  emperor  on  the  throne  of  Germany, 
could  henceforward  merely  endeavor  to  secure  liberty  of 
conscience  to  the  German  Protestants.  Gustavus's  ambition 
had  embraced  the  whole  of  Germany;  that  of  Oxenstierna 


was  unknown,  her  brother,  Charles  I.  of  England,  whose  head  had  rolled  on  the 
scaffold,  and  her  unfortunate  children.  Her  eldest  son,  Henry  Frederick,  was 
drowned,  in  1629,  at  Amsterdam.  The  second,  Charles  Louis,  became,  on 
the  termination  of  the  war,  elector  of  the  Pfalz,  but  lived  unhappily  witli  Ins 
wife,  and,  taking  a  mistress,  his  mother  refrained  from  returning  thither.  The 
third,  Robert,  after  distinguishing  himself  against  Cromwell  and  Spain,  remained 
with  his  mother  and  occupied  himself  with  the  study  of  chemistry.  The  fourth, 
Maurice,  disappeared  after  a  naval  engagement  with  the  Spanish  flotilla,  and  was 
supposed  to  have  been  lost  in  a  storm  at  sea.  The  fifth,  Edward,  dishonored  his 
family,  that  had  suffered  so  much  for  the  sake  of  religion,  by  turning  Catholic, 
and  entered  the  French  service.  The  sixth,  Philip,  a  brave  adventurer,  mur- 
dered a  nobleman  and  fled  into  France.  He  was  killed  in  the  French  service 
during  a  siege.  The  seventh,  Gustavus,  died  in  his  boyhood.  The  eldest  daugh- 
ter, Elisabeth,  rejected  the  hand  of  Wladislaw  of  Poland  from  a  religious  motive, 
studied  philosophy,  was  a  friend  of  Descartes  and  of  William  Penn,  the  founder 
of  Pennsylvania,  and  died  Lutheran  abbess  of  Herford.  The  second,  Henrietta 
Maria,  married  Ragoczy,  prince  of  Transylvania,  but  died  shortly  after  the  wed- 
ding. The  third,  Louisa,  had  a  talent  for  painting  and  remained  for  a  long  time 
with  Robert  in  attendance  on  her  mother,  whom  she  suddenly  quitted  in  order 
to  take  the  veil.  She  became  Catholic  abbess  of  Manbuisson.  The  fourth, 
Sophia,  married  a  poor  prince,  Ernest  Augustus  of  Brunswick-Luneburg,  the 
youngest  of  four  brothers. — Elisabeth  and  her  son  Robert,  the  only  one  of  her 
numerous  family  left  in  her  old  age,  repaired  to  England  on  the  restoration  of 
the  Stuarts.  She  died  there  in  1662.  Robert  also  died  in  England,  leaving 
no  legitimate  issue. 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR  1027 

simply  extended  to  the  possession  of  one  of  her  provinces. 
Had  Gustavus  lived,  Germany  might  have  become  great, 
united,  and  happy;  France  would  have  been  confined  within 
her  limits;  Sweden  would  have  become  a  German  province; 
the  German  provinces  on  the  Baltic  would  have  been  incor- 
porated with  the  empire;  Livonia  would  have  been  saved, 
and  the  Russians  checked.  Oxenstierna,  by  his  project  for 
the  dismemberment  of  Germany  and  his  consequent  coalition 
with  F  ranee,  was,  instead  of  the  friend,  the  most  dangerous 
foe  to  the  German  cause.  The  coalition  of  the  Catholics  and 
Protestants  for  the  expulsion  of  the  foreigner  was  urgently 
necessary  for  the  salvation  of  the  empire,  but  the  Protes- 
tants, intimidated  by  the  edict  of  restitution,  placed  no  con- 
fidence in  tbe  promises  of  their  Jesuitical  sovereign.  The 
confederated  princes,  bribed  by  French  gold,  promises,  and 
grants,  still  carried  on  the  war  and  remained  true  to  Oxen- 
stierna, who,  notwithstanding  the  opposition  offered  by 
France  and  Saxony,  was  elected  head  of  the  confederacy 
in  a  convocation  of  the  princes  held  at  Heilbronn. 

The  Swedish  troops  were  once  more  thrown  into  Upper 
Germany,  and  Bernard  von  Weimar  set  off  for  the  Upper 
Danube  in  order  to  form  a  junction  with  Horn,  in  the  spring 
of  1633.  The  Bavarian  cavalry,  under  John  von  Werth, 
vainly  intercepted  him;  they  were  repulsed,  and  a  junction 
took  place  with  Horn  at  Neuburg,  where  the  clamor  raised 
by  the  officers  for  the  payment  of  their  long  arrears  was 
silenced  by  the  seizure  of  the  ecclesiastical  property  and  its 
partition  among  them.  Bernard  received,  as  his  share  of 
the  booty,  the  bishoprics  of  Wurzburg  and  Bamberg  as  a 
new  Franconian  duchy,  while  Horn  usurped  the  government 
of  Mergentheim.  Night  skirmishes  conducted  by  the  cavalry 
and  light  troops  became  from  this  period  more  frequent,  and 
pitched  battles  of  rare  occurrence. 

Wallenstein,  meanwhile,  remained  immovable  in  Bohe- 
mia. France  attempted  to  shake  his  fidelity  to  the  emperor 
by  an  offer  of  the  Bohemian  crown.  Spain,  actuated  by  her 
ancient  distrust,  sent  an  army  under  Feria,  with  orders  to 


1028  THE   HISTORY   OF    GERMANY 

join  the  division  of  Wallenstein's  army  under  Altringer  at 
Kempten,  in  which  he  succeeded,  notwithstanding  the  ad- 
vance of  French  troops  into  the  Grisons.  Horn,  who  had, 
meanwhile,  laid  siege  to  Constance,  now  rejoined  Bernard, 
and  offered  the  Spaniard  battle  near  Tutlingen.  Feria, 
however,  declined  coming  to  an  engagement,  and,  after 
entering  Alsace  and  relieving  Breisach,  at  that  time 
besieged  by  the  Rheingrave  von  Salm,  dragged  the  re- 
mainder of  his  army,  which  during  the  winter  had  fallen 
a  prey  to  pestilence  and  famine,  through  Swabia  to  Mu- 
nich, where  he  expired,  while  Horn  remained  tranquilly  at 
Balingen. 

France,  in  the  hope  of  confirming  her  possession  of  Lor- 
raine, still  kept  that  country  garrisoned  with  her  troops.  In 
the  North,  George  von  Luneburg  continued  to  oppose  Grons- 
feld;  William  of  Hesse  and  his  brave  general,  Holzapfel, 
took  Paderborn,  and,  uniting  with  George  and  a  small 
Swedish  army  under  Kniphausen,  laid  siege  to  Hameln. 
Gronsfeld  and  his  Dutch  allies,  the  Counts  Merode  and 
Geleen,  hastening  to  the  relief  of  that  town,  were  completely 
routed  at  Hessisch-Oldendorf.  Hameln  and  Osnabruck  ca- 
pitulated. Boninghausen,  the  imperial  partisan,  and  Stal- 
hantsch,  the  Swedish  colonel,  took  up  their  quarters  in 
Hesse. — Wallenstein's  partisan,  Hoik,  meanwhile,  laid  Thu- 
ringia  waste,  took  and  plundered  Leipzig,  and  burned  Alten- 
burg,  Chemnitz,  and  Zwickau  to  the  ground.  In  Zwickau, 
a  pestilence,  caused  by  the  famine  and  the  heaps  of  putrid 
dead,  broke  out  and  raged  like  an  avenging  spirit  among 
Hoik's  troops.  He  sought  safety  in  flight,  but  the  pestilence 
kept  pace  with  his  movements,  strewing  his  path  with  the 
dying  and  the  dead,  and  at  length  made  him  its  victim  at 
Tirschenreuth.  Wrung  with  anguish  and  remorse,  he  sent 
his  horsemen  out  in  every  direction,  and  offered  six  hundred 
dollars  to  any  one  who  would  bring  a  Lutheran  pastor  to 
administer  the  sacrament  before  he  expired ;  but  shortly  be- 
fore this  he  had  ordered  the  assassination  of  every  ecclesias- 
tic in  the  country,  and  the  few  who  remained  having  taken 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR  1029 

refuge  in  the  forests,  he  died  in  agonies  of  despair  before  one 
could  be  found  to  perform  that  office. 

Wallenstein's  officers,  Illow,  Gcetz,  aud  Octavio  Picco- 
lomini,  a  venal  Italian  mercenary,  the  most  depraved  wretch 
that  appeared  on  the  scene  during  the  war,  also  carried  fire 
and  sword  into  Silesia  and  completely  destroyed  the  city  of 
Reichenbach.  Some  thousand  Poles  under  Dohna  aided  to 
ravage  the  country.  These  flying  corps,  however,  retreated 
to  Bohemia  on  the  arrival  of  Arnheim  with  his  Saxons  and 
of  a  Swedish  troop  under  Colonel  Duval.  The  Protestant 
towns,  particularly  Breslau,  gave  them  a  hearty  welcome. 
Dohna,  who  had  defended  that  city,  narrowly  escaped  assas- 
sination by  the  enraged  citizens.  Duval,  however,  treated 
the  city  with  extreme  severity,  plundered  the  Catholic 
churches  and  ecclesiastical  property,  destroyed  the  ancient 
and  magnificent  cathedral  library,  and  converted  the  church 
of  St.  Bartholomew  into  a  stable.  The  bishop,  Charles  Fer- 
dinand, fled  into  Poland.  A  multitude  of  Silesians,  who 
had  been  compelled  to  embrace  Catholicism,  again  recanted. 
The  whole  of  the  imperial  garrison  in  Strehlen  was  mas- 
sacred by  the  Swedes  in  1633.  Wallenstein  now  appeared 
in  person  in  Silesia,  out-manoeuvred  Arnheim,  with  whom 
he  carried  on  a  secret  correspondence,  and  surprised  the 
small  body  of  Swedes  remaining  at  Steinau,  where  he  cap- 
tured the  aged  Count  Thurn,  whom  he  restored  to  liberty  in 
order  to  mortify  the  Viennese,  and  to  Hatter  the  national 
feeling  of  the  Bohemians,  whose  sovereign  he  might  one 
day  become.  Grcedizberg,  where  he  seized  the  treasures  of 
Frederick,  duke  of  Liegnitz,  was  taken,  Nimptsch  burned 
to  the  ground,  and  the  wretched  inhabitants  throughout  the 
country  were  massacred  and  tortured,  without  regard  to  age 
or  sex.  Arnheim  was  pursued  into  the  Lausitz.  Gcerlitz 
and  Bautzen  capitulated.  Terzki  took  Frankfort  on  the 
Oder,  and  Wallenstein  suddenly  returned  to  Bohemia  in 
order  to  oppose  Bernard  of  Weimar. 

Bernard,  unopposed  by  John  von  Werth,  who  had  merely 
beaten  a  few  Swedish  regiments  under  Spcrreuter  from  their 


1030  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

quarters  in  the  vicinity  of  Augsburg,  had  marched  down  the 
Danube,  and  in  November  taken  possession  of  Ratisbon. 
Wallenstein  looked  on  with  indifference,  and  when  at  length 
induced  to  return  by  the  urgent  entreaties  of  the  Bavarians 
and  of  the  Viennese  court,  evaded  coming  to  an  engagement 
and  went  back  to  Bohemia.  John  von  Werth  gained  a 
slight  advantage  at  Straubing. 

It  is  a  well- confirmed  fact  that  Wallenstein  carried  on 
negotiations  with  Saxony  and  Brandenburg,  and  that  the 
latter  hoped  by  his  aid  to  restore  the  intermediate  power  so 
long  desired  between  the  emperor  and  Sweden.  It  is  also 
indubitable  that  France  favored  this  intrigue  and  assured 
to  Wallenstein  the  possession  of  Bohemia.  If,  at  the  same 
time,  he  secretly  corresponded  with  Oxenstierna,  it  was 
solely  for  the  purpose  of  compelling  the  others  to  accede  to 
better  terms;  the  Swede  did  not  believe  him  to  be  in  earnest. 
It  is  impossible  to  discover  to  what  lengths  Wallenstein  in- 
tended to  go.  His  first  object  was  at  all  events  to  secure  a 
support  in  case  he  should  again  fall  a  victim  to  the  Spanish- 
Bavarian  faction.  At  the  same  time,  he  confided  the  fact  of 
his  negotiations  to  the  emperor,  who,  believing  their  sole  ob- 
ject to  be  to  sound  all  parties,  authorized  him  to  carry  them 
on.  The  ambiguity  and  reserve  with  which  he  consequently 
acted  rendered  him  an  object  of  suspicion  to  all  parties,  and, 
moreover,  no  one  valued  his  alliance  unless  he  was  backed 
by  his  army.  The  cessation  of  hostilities,  caused  by  contin- 
ual negotiation,  was,  meanwhile,  highly  distasteful  to  his 
soldiery,  in  whose  minds  prejudices  were  busily  instilled  by 
the  Jesuits,  who,  at  the  same  time,  whispered  to  the  bigoted 
Catholics  that  the  duke  of  Friedland  was  on  the  point  of 
going  over  to  the  Protestants.  The  foreign  troops  were 
easily  gained;  the  German  soldiery  remained  firm  in  their 
allegiance  to  Wallenstein.  Ulric,  prince  of  Denmark,  who 
had  entered  the  camp  to  negotiate  with  Wallenstein,  was 
shot,  as  if  by  accident,  by  one  of  General  Piccolomim's  body- 
guard. Wallenstein,  either  unable  or  unwilling  to  come  to 
terms  with  the  enemy  unless  secure  beforehand  of  the  co- 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR  1031 

operation  of  his  army,  endeavored  to  outwit  the  Jesuits  by 
o  tiering  to  resign  his  command.  The  conduct  of  the  army 
appeared  to  meetWallenstein's  highest  expectations.  A  vio- 
lent commotion  ensued  in  the  camp  at  Pilsen;  the  whole  of 
the  officers  entreated  Wallenstein  not  to  abandon  them,  and, 
at  a  banquet  given  by  his  confidant,  Field-marshal  Ulow,  a 
document,  by  which  they  in  their  turn  bound  themselves 
never  to  desert  him,  was  signed  by  them  all.  The  foreign 
officers  also  added  their  signatures,  but  with  intent  to  betray 
him. 

The  jealousy  of  the  emperor  was,  meanwhile,  inflamed 
by  the  insinuations  of  the  Jesuits.  The  Spanish  ambassador 
exclaimed,  "Why  this  delay?  a  dagger  or  a  pistol  will  re- 
move him!"  His  assassination  was  resolved  upon  by  the 
emperor,  who,  in  perfect  conformity  with  his  character, 
wrote  to  him  continually  in  the  most  gracious  terms,  for 
twenty  days  after  having  signed  the  warrant  for  his  death. 
The  voluptuary,  Octavio  Piccolomini,  in  whom  Wallenstein, 
blinded  by  a  superstitious  belief  in  the  conjunction  of  their 
stars,  placed  the  most  implicit  confidence,  betrayed  all  his 
projects  to  the  emperor,  who  committed  to  General  Gallas 
the  decree  for  the  deposition  of  Wallenstein,  his  nomination 
as  generalissimo  in  his  stead,  and  a  general  amnesty  for  the 
officers.  This  secret  order  was  solely  confided  by  Gallas  to 
the  foreign  officers,  to  Piccolomini,  to  Isolani,  Colloredo, 
Butler,  etc. ;  and  the  general  amnesty  was  afterward  ex- 
changed for  a  decree,  depriving  all  the  German  generals  of 
their  appointments  and  replacing  them  with  foreigners. 

Wallenstein,  suddenly  abandoned  by  Piccolomini  and  the 
rest  of  the  foreign  generals,  fled  with  the  few  regiments  that 
still  clung  to  him  (there  were  traitors  among  them)  to  Eger. 
Driven  by  necessity,  he  now  demanded  aid  from  Bernard  von 
Weimar,  who  had  taken  Ratisbon  and  was  in  his  neighbor- 
hood. The  astonishment  caused  by  this  message  was  ex- 
treme, and  Bernard,  who  believed  Wallenstein  in  league 
with  the  devil,  exclaimed,  "He  who  does  not  trust  in  God 
can  never  be  trusted   by   man!"     Wallenstein's   hour  was 


1032  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

come.  Colonel  Butler,  an  Irish  officer  named  Lesley,  and 
a  Scotchman  named  Gordon,  who  were  probably  in  league 
with  the  Jesuits,  conspired,  in  the  hope  of  being  richly  re- 
warded by  the  emperor,  against  the  life  of  their  great  leader 
and  common  benefactor.  The  soldiers  used  by  Butler  for 
this  purpose  consisted  of  Irishmen,  two  Scotchmen,  and  an 
Italian.  Illow,  Terzki,  Kinsky,  and  Captain  Neumann  were 
murdered  during  a  banquet  held  in  the  castle  of  Eger. '  The 
door  of  Wallenstein's  apartment  was  burst  open.  Wallen- 
stein  sprang  from  his  bed  and  was  met  by  Devereux,  who 
cried  out  to  him,  "Are  you  the  villain  who  would  sell  the 
army  to  the  enemy  and  tear  the  crown  from  the  emperor's 
head?"  Wallenstein,  without  replying,  opened  his  arms  and 
received  a  mortal  wound  in  the  breast,  February  25,  1634. a 

Bernard  von  Weimar  reached  Eger  shortly  after  the  mur- 
der, and  found  the  town  in  the  hands  of  the  imperialists. 
Butler  and  Lesley  were  created  counts  and  richly  rewarded 
by  the  emperor.  Neustadt  was  bestowed  upon  Butler,  the 
whole  of  Terzki's  possessions  upon  Lesley,  those  of  Kinsky 
upon  Gordon.  Devereux  received  a  badge  of  distinction 
and  a  pension.  Wallenstein's  possessions  were  divided 
among  his  betrayers,  Gallas  receiving  Friedland;  Piccolo- 
mini,  who,  on  the  murder  of  his  former  friend  had  helped 
himself  richly  to  his  treasures,  being  merely  rewarded  with 
the  gift  of  Rachod,  Colloredo  with  Opotschno,  Altringer 
with  Tceplitz,  Trautmannsdorf  with  Gitschin.  The  emperor 
appropriated  Sagan  to  himself.  The  money  left  in  Wallen- 
stein's treasury  by  Piccolommi  was  scattered  as  a  largesse 
among  the  soldiery.  The  officers  who  had  most  firmly  ad- 
hered to  their  former  leader  were,  although  guiltless  of  par- 
ticipation in  his  political  schemes,  banished,  in  order  to  make 
room  for  foreigners;  twenty-four  of  their  number  were  be- 
headed at  Pilsen.     The  emperor,  at  the  same  time,  published 

1  Tbe  banqueting-hall,  where  this  tragic  scene  took  place,  is  now  all  that 
remains  of  the  castle  of  Eger.  —  Tra 

'  The  room  in  the  burgomaster's  house,  where  this  murder  was  committed, 
may  still  be  seen  by  the  inquisitive  traveller.  —  T>-ans. 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR  1033 

a  manifesto,  in  which  he  attempted  to  justify  Wallenstein's 
base  assassination  by  loading  his  memory  with  false  asper- 
sions, the  very  negotiations  carried  on  by  him  at  his  command 
and  with  his  knowledge  being  brought  forward  in  proof  of 
the  criminality  of  his  designs. 

CCIX.    The  Battle  of  Nozrdlingen — The  Treaty  of  Prague — 

Defeat  of  the  French 

Wallenstein's  army,  a  few  regiments  excepted,  which 
dispersed  or  went  over  to  the  Swedes,  remained  true  to  the 
emperor.  The  archduke,  Ferdinand,  was  appointed  gener- 
alissimo of  the  imperial  forces,  which  were  placed  under  the 
command  of  Gallas.  Another  army  was  conducted  across 
the  Alps  by  the  Cardinal  Infanto,  Don  Fernando,  brother 
to  Philip  IV.  of  Spain,  1634.  Had  Bernard  been  aided  by 
the  Saxons  or  by  Horn,  the  whole  of  the  imperial  army  might 
easily  have  been  scattered  during  the  confusion  consequent 
on  the  death  of  its  commander,  but  the  Saxons  were  engaged 
in  securing  the  possession  of  the  Lausitz,  and  it  was  not  until 
May  that  Arnheim  gained  a  trifling  advantage  near  Liegnitz. 
Horn  laid  siege  to  Ueberlingen  on  the  Lake  of  Constance, 
with  a  view  of  retarding  the  advance  of  the  Spaniards.  A 
small  Swedish  force  under  Banner  retook  Frankfort  on  the 
Oder  and  joined  the  Saxons.  The  little  town  of  Hoexter  was 
plundered,  and  all  the  inhabitants  were  butchered  by  Geleen, 
George  von  Luneburg  delaying  to  grant  his  promised  aid  in 
the  hope  of  seizing  Hildesbeim  for  himself.  Hildesheim 
capitulated  in  July.  The  country  swarmed  with  revolu- 
tionary peasant  bands,  whom  hunger  had  converted  into 
robbers.  The  upper  Rhenish  provinces  were  equally  un- 
quiet. Bernard  remained  inactive  on  the  Danube,  alone 
disturbed  by  John  von  Werth,  who  once  more  drove  him 
from  his  quarters  at  Deggendorf.  Feuquieres,  meanwhile, 
strenuously  endeavored  to  win  the  Heilbronn  confederation 
over  to  the  interests  of  France,  and  to  dissolve  their  alliance 
with  Sweden.      Lccffler  had  abandoned  the  Swedish  service 


1034  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

for  that  of  France,  and  his  master,  the  young  Duke  Eber- 
hard  of  Wurtemberg,  was,  like  William  of  Hesse,  in  the  pay 
of  that  crown. 

The  whole  of  the  Protestant  forces  were  thus  scattered 
when  the  great  imperial  army  broke  up  its  camp  in  Bohemia 
and  advanced  upon  Ratisbon,  with  the  design  of  seizing  that 
city  and  of  joining  the  Spanish  army  then  advancing  from 
Italy.  Bernard  vainly  summoned  Horn  to  his  aid;  the  mo- 
ment for  action  passed,  and,  when  too  late,  he  was  joined  by 
that  commander  at  Augsburg,  and  the  confederates  pushed 
hastily  forward  to  the  relief  of  Ratisbon.  Landshut  was  taken 
by  storm  and  shared  the  fate  of  Magdeburg.  Altringer,  while 
vainly  attempting  to  save  the  city,  perished  in  the  general 
conflagration.  The  castle,  which  had  been  converted  into 
a  powder  magazine,  was  blown  up  in  1634.  The  news  of 
the  capitulation  of  Ratisbon,  on  the  26th  of  July,  reached 
the  victors  midway.  Arnheim  and  Banner  appeared  on  the 
same  day  before  Prague.  The  imperialists,  nevertheless,  in- 
different to  the  fate  of  Bohemia,  continued  to  mount  the 
Danube.  The  advanced  Croatian  guard  committed  the  most 
horrid  excesses.  At  Noerdlingen,  a  junction  took  place  with 
the  Spanish  troops.  The  imperial  army  now  amounted  to 
forty-six  thousand  men  under  Ferdinand  III.,  the  Cardinal 
Infanto,  the  elector  of  Bavaria,  the  duke  of  Lorraine,  Gen- 
erals Gallas  and  John  von  Werth.  The  Protestants,  al- 
though reinforced  by  the  people  of  Wurtemberg,  merely 
numbered  thirty  thousand.  Bernard,  too  confident  of  suc- 
cess, and  impatient  to  relieve  the  city  of  Noerdlingen,  at 
that  time  vigorously  besieged  by  the  imperialists,  rejected 
Horn's  advice  to  await  the  arrival  of  the  Rheingrave,  and 
resolved  to  hazard  a  battle.  On  the  26th  of  August,  1634, 
he  made  a  successful  attack  and  gained  a  favorable  posi- 
tion, but  was,  on  the  following  day,  overwhelmed  by  num- 
bers. The  explosion  of  his  powder-magazine,  by  which 
numbers  of  his  men  were  destroyed,  contributed  to  complete 
his  defeat.  Count  Thurn  the  Younger  vainly  endeavored 
to  turn  the  battle  and  led  his  men  seventeen  times  to  the 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR  1085 

charge.  Horn  was  taken  prisoner,  and  twelve  thousand 
men  fell.  Bernard  fled.  His  treasures  and  papers  fell  into 
the  hands  of  the  enemy.  The  Rheingrave,  who  was  bring- 
ing seven  thousand  men  to  his  aid,  was  surprised  and  com- 
pletely routed  by  John  von  Werth  and  Charles  of  Lorraine. 
Heilbronn  was  plundered  during  the  retreat  by  the  Swedish 
Colonel  Senger,  who  fled  out  of  one  gate  with  his  booty  as 
the  imperialists  entered  at  another  to  complete  the  pillage. 
The  horrors  inflicted  upon  Bavaria  were  terribly  revenged 
upon  Swabia.  The  duke  of  Wurtemberg,  Eberhard  III., 
safe  behind  the  fortifications  of  Strasburg,  forgot  the  misery 
of  his  country  in  the  arms  of  the  beautiful  Margravine  von 
Salm.  Waiblingen,  Nurtingen,  Calw,  Kirchheim,  Bceblin- 
gen,  Besigheim,  and  almost  every  village  throughout  the 
country,  were  destroyed;  Heilbronn  was  almost  totally 
burned  down;  the  inhabitants  were  either  butchered  or 
cruelly  tortured.  To  pillage  and  murder  succeeded  fam- 
ine and  pestilence.  The  population  of  the  duchy  of  Wur- 
temberg was  reduced  from  half  a  million  to  forty-eight  thou- 
sand souls.  The  Jesuits  took  possession  of  the  old  Lutheran 
university  of  Tubingen.  Osiander,  the  chancellor  of  the  uni- 
versity, unmoved  by  the  example  of  his  weaker  brethren, 
who  recanted  in  order  to  retain  their  offices  and  dignities, 
bravely  knocked  down  a  soldier,  who  attacked  him,  sword 
in  hand,  in  the  pulpit.  The  Catholic  service  was,  in  many 
places,  re-established  by  force.  The  whole  of  Wurtemberg 
was  either  confiscated  by  the  emperor  or  partitioned  among 
his  favorites;  Trautmannsdorf  received  Weinsberg;  Schlick, 
Bablingen  and  Tuttlingen,  etc. ;  Taupadel,  who  had  been  left 
by  Bernard  in  Schorndorf,  was  forced  to  yield.  Augsburg 
was  again  distinguished  amid  the  general  misery  by  the  loss 
of  sixty  thousand  of  her  inhabitants,  who  were  swept  away 
by  famine  and  pestilence.  The  remaining  citizens,  whom 
starvation  alone  compelled  to  capitulate,  were  deprived  of 
all  their  possessions,  forced  to  recant,  and  refused  permission 
to  emigrate.  Wurzburg,  Frankfort,  Spires,  Philipsburg,  the 
whole  of  Rhenish  Franconia,  besides  Mayence,  Heidelberg, 


1086  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

and  Coblentz,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  emperor.  The  whole 
of  the  Pfalz  was  again  laid  waste,  and  the  inhabitants  were 
butchered  in  such  numbers  that  two  hundred  peasants  were 
all  that  remained  in  the  lower  country.  Isolani  devastated 
the  Wetterau  with  fire  and  sword,  and  plundered  the  coun- 
try as  far  as  Thuringia.  The  places  whither  the  Swedes  had 
fled  for  refuge  also  suffered  incredibly.  The  fugitive  sol- 
diery, without  provisions  or  baggage,  clamored  for  pay,  and 
Oxenstierna,  in  order  to  avoid  a  general  pillage,  laid  the 
merchants,  assembled  at  the  fair  held  at  Frankfort  on  the 
Maine,  under  contribution.  The  sufferings  of  the  wretched 
Swabians  were  avenged  by  the  imbittered  soldiery  on  the 
Catholic  inhabitants  of  Mayence. 

The  imperial  army,  although  weakened  by  division,  by 
garrisoning  the  conquered  provinces,  and  by  the  departure 
of  the  Infanto  for  the  Netherlands,  still  presented  too  formi- 
dable an  aspect  for  attack  on  the  part  of  Bernard,  who,  un- 
willing to  demand  the  aid  he  required  from  France,  remained 
peaceably  beyond  the  Rhine.  The  Heilbronn  confederacy 
had,  independently  of  him,  cast  itself  into  the  arms  of  France. 
Lceffler,  the  Swedish  chancellor,  and  the  chief  leader  of  the 
confederation,  had  contrived  to  secure  to  France,  without 
Bernard's  assent,  the  hereditary  possession  of  Alsace,  for 
which  he  was  deprived  of  his  office  and  banished  by  Oxen- 
stierna. The  celebrated  Dutchman,  Hugo  Grotius,  replaced 
him  as  Swedish  ambassador  in  Paris.  Wurtemberg  and 
Hesse  had  long  forwarded  the  interests  of  France. 

The  sin  committed  by  the  Heilbronn  confederation  against 
Germany  by  selling  themselves  to  France  is  alone  to  be  pal- 
liated by  the  desperate  situation  to  which  they  were  reduced 
by  the  defection  of  the  Protestant  electors.  Saxony  and  Bran- 
denburg again  concluded  peace  in  1635,  at  Prague,  with 
the  emperor,  to  whom  they  abandoned  all  the  Protestants  in 
southern  and  western  Germany  and  the  whole  of  the  Heil- 
bronn confederation,  under  pretext  of  the  urgent  necessity 
of  peace,  of  the  restoration  of  the  honor  of  Germany  and  of 
the  happiness  of  the  people  by  the  expulsion  of  the  foreigner. 


THE   THIRTY    YEARS'   WAR  1037 

Saxony  was  reinstated  in  the  territory  of  which  she  had  been 
deprived  by  the  edict  of  restitution,  and  received  the  Upper 
Lausitz  as  a  hereditary  fief.  Augustus,  elector  of  Saxony, 
was  also  nominated  administrator  of  the  archbishopric  of 
Magdeburg  in  the  room  of  the  Archduke  Leopold.  A  Saxon 
princess,  the  daughter  of  the  electoress  Magdalena  Sibylla, 
was  given  in  marriage  to  Prince  Christian  of  Denmark  as 
an  inducement  to  that  prince  to  take  the  field  against  Swe- 
den. Brandenburg  received  the  reversion  of  Pomerania, 
whose  last  duke,  Bozislaw,  was  sick  and  childless.  The 
princes  of  Mecklenburg  and  Anhalt,  and  the  cities  Erfurt, 
Augsburg,  Nuremberg,  and  Ulm,  also  conformed  to  the 
treaty  for  the  sake  of  preserving  their  neutrality,  for  which 
they  were  bitterly  punished. 

Had  the  emperor  taken  advantage  of  the  decreasing  power 
of  Sweden,  of  the  procrastination  on  the  part  of  France,  and 
of  the  general  desire  for  peace  manifested  throughout  Ger- 
many, to  publish  a  general  amnesty  and  to  grant  the  free  ex- 
ercise of  religion  throughout  the  empire,  the  wounds  inflicted 
by  his  bloodthirsty  policy  might  yet  have  leen  healed;  but  the 
gray-headed  hypocrite  merely  folded  his  hands,  dripping  in 
gore,  in  prayer,  and  demanded  fresh  victims  from  the  god 
of  peace.  Peace  was  concluded  with  part  of  the  heretics  in 
order  to  secure  the  destruction  of  the  rest.  The  last  oppor- 
tunity that  offered  for  the  expulsion  of  the  foreign  robber 
from  Germany  was  lost  by  the  exclusion  of  the  Heilbronn 
confederation  from  the  treaty  of  Prague  by  the  emperor; 
and  although  they  in  their  despair  placed  the  empire  at  the 
mercy  of  the  French,  and  their  country  for  centuries  beneath 
French  influence,  their  crime  rests  on  the  head  of  the  sover- 
eign, who  by  his  acts  placed  the  empire  on  the  brink  of  the 
precipice,  and  on  those  of  the  dastardly  electors,  who,  for 
the  sake  of  securing  an  enlarged  territory  to  their  houses, 
basely  betrayed  their  brethren.  The  elector  of  Saxony,  for 
the  second  time  unmindful  of  his  plighted  faith,  abandoned 
Protestant  Silesia  to  the  wrath  of  the  Jesuits,  and  the  fate 
of  the  remaining  Protestant  provinces,  excluded  from  the 


1038  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

treaty  of  Prague,  may  be  read  in  that  of  the  Pfalz  and  of 
Wur  tern  berg. 

Oxenstierna  hastened  in  person  to  Paris  for  the  purpose 
of  making  terms  with  Eichelieu,  and  thereby  counterbalanc- 
ing the  league  between  the  emperor,  Saxony,  and  Branden- 
burg, and  Bernard  von  Weimar  was  compelled  passively  to 
behold  the  dispute  between  Sweden  and  France  for  sover- 
eignty over  Protestant  Germany.  The  French  soldiery  were, 
moreover,  so  undisciplined  and  cowardly  that  they  deserted 
in  troops.  Bernard  was  consequently  far  from  sufficiently 
reinforced,  but  nevertheless  succeeded  in  raising  the  siege  of 
Heidelberg.  The  death  of  the  energetic  and  aged  Rhein- 
grave  took  place  just  at  this  period. 

While  matters  were  thus  at  a  standstill  on  the  Upper 
Rhine,  success  attended  the  imperial  arms  in  the  Nether- 
lands. The  French,  victorious  at  Avaire,  were  forced  to 
raise  the  siege  of  Louvain  by  the  Infanto  and  Piccolomini 
in  1635.  The  Dutch  were  also  expelled  the  country.  Ber- 
nard, fearing  to  be  surrounded  by  Piccolomini,  retired  from 
the  Rhine  into  Upper  Burgundy.  Heidelberg  fell ;  two  French 
regiments  were  cut  to  pieces  at  Reichenweiler  by  John  von 
Werth;  Hatzfeld  took  Kaiserslautern  by  storm,  and  almost 
totally  annihilated  the  celebrated  yellow  regiment  of  Gus- 
tavus  Adolphus.  Mayence  was  closely  besieged,  and  France, 
alarmed  at  the  turn  of  affairs,  sent  the  old  Cardinal  de  la 
Valette  to  reinforce  Bernard,  who  advanced  to  the  relief  of 
Mayence  and  succeeded  in  raising  the  siege,  notwithstanding 
the  cowardice  of  the  French,  who  were  forced  by  threats  to 
cross  the  Rhine.  John  von  Werth,  meanwhile,  invaded  Lor- 
raine, and,  with  Piccolomini  and  the  Infanto,  made  a  feint 
to  cross  the  French  frontier.  La  Valette  and  Bernard  in- 
stantly returned,  pursued  by  Gallas  and  already  surrounded 
by  Colloredo, '  who  was  defeated  by  Bernard  at  Meisenheim, 
where   he  had  seized  the  pass.     Hotly  pursued   by  Gallas 

1  The  Colloredo  are  descended  from  the  Swabian  family  of  Walseo,  which,  in 
the  fourteenth  century,  settled  in  the  Friaul,  and,  at  a  later  period,  erected  the 
castle  on  the  steep  (collo  rigido). 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR  1039 

and  hard  pushed  by  the  Croatians,  Bernard  escaped  across 
the  Saar  at  Walderfingen  on  a  bridge  raised  on  wine-casks, 
before  the  arrival  of  the  main  body  of  the  imperialists,  which 
came  up  with  his  rearguard  at  Boulay,  but  met  with  a  re- 
pulse. After  a  retreat  of  thirteen  days,  the  fugitive  army 
reached  Metz,  in  September,  1635.  Gallas  fixed  his  head- 
quarters in  Lorraine,  but  the  country  had  been  already  so 
completely  pillaged  that  he  was  compelled  to  return  in  ISIo- 
yember,  and  to  fix  his  camp  in  Alsace-Gabern,  where  he 
gave  himself  up  to  rioting  and  drunkenness,  while  his  army 
was  thinned  by  famine  and  pestilence.  Mayence  was  starved 
out  and  capitulated,  after  having  been  plundered  by  the 
Swedish  garrison. 

In  the  commencement  of  1636,  Bernard  visited  Paris, 
where  he  was  courteously  received  by  Louis  XIII.  The 
impression  made  upon  his  heart  by  the  lovely  daughter  of 
the  Due  de  Rohan  was  no  sooner  perceived  than  a  plan  was 
formed  by  the  French  court  to  deprive  him  of  his  independ- 
ence as  a  prince  of  the  empire.  Bernard  discovered  their 
project  and  closed  his  heart  against  the  seductions  of  the 
lady.  The  aid  promised  by  France  was  now  withheld.  Both 
parties  were  deceived.  France,  unwilling  to  defray  the  ex- 
penses of  a  war  carried  on  by  Bernard  for  the  sole  benefit  of 
Protestant  Germany,  merely  aimed  at  preserving  a  pretext 
for  interference  in  the  political  and  religious  disputes  agitat- 
ing that  country,  and,  for  that  purpose,  promised  Bernard  a 
sum  of  four  million  livres  for  the  maintenance  of  an  army 
of  eighteen  thousand  men. 

The  reconquest  of  Alsace  followed;  at  Gabern,  which 
was  taken  by  storm,  Bernard  lost  the  forefinger  of  his  left 
hand,  and  the  bed  on  which  he  lay  was  shattered  by  a  cannon- 
ball.  He  returned  thence  to  Lorraine,  where  he  carried  on 
a  petty  war  with  Gallas  and  took  several  fortresses.  The 
humanity  evinced  by  him  at  this  period,  so  contrary  to  the 
license  he  had  formerly  allowed  his  soldiery  from  a  spirit  of 
religious  fanaticism,  proceeded  from  a  desire  to  please  the 
French  queen,  the  celebrated  Anne  of  Austria,  the  daughter 


1040  THE    HISTORY    OF    GERMANY 

of  Philip  III.  of  Spain.  He  surprised  Isolani's  Croatians  at 
Champlitte,  and  deprived  them  of  eighteen  hundred  horses 
and  of  the  whole  of  the  rich  booty  they  had  collected,  in 
1636. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  year,  John  von  Werth  had,  in- 
dependently of  Gallas,  ventured  as  far  as  Louvain,  where  a 
revolution  had  broken  out.  The  Gallo-Dutch  faction,  never- 
theless, proved  victorious,  and  the  imperialists  were  expelled. 
Werth,  unable  to  lay  siege  to  the  town  with  his  cavalry,  re- 
venged himself  by  laying  the  country  in  the  vicinity  waste. 
In  April,  he  joined  Piccolomini  with  the  view  of  invading 
France  and  of  marching  full  upon  Paris.  This  project  was, 
however,  frustrated  by  Piccolomini's  timidity  and  by  the 
tardy  movements  of  the  infantry.  This  expedition,  under- 
taken in  defiance  of  the  orders  of  the  elector  of  Bavaria,  forms 
one  of  the  few  amusing  episodes  of  this  terrible  tragedy. 
Werth,  advancing  rapidly  with  his  cavalry,  beat  the  French 
on  every  point,  forced  the  passage  of  the  Somme  and  Oise, 
and  spread  terror  throughout  France.  The  cities  laid  their 
keys  at  his  feet,  the  nobles  begged  for  sentinels  to  guard  their 
houses,  and  paid  them  enormous  sums.  Paris  was  reduced 
to  despair.  The  roads  to  Chartres  and  Orleans  were  crowded 
with  fugitives,  and  the  metropolis  must  inevitably  have  fallen 
had  Werth,  instead  of  allowing  his  men  to  remain  behind 
plundering  the  country,  pushed  steadily  forward.  By  this 
delay,  Kichelieu  gained  time  to  levy  troops  and  to  send  the 
whole  of  the  disposable  force  against  him.  A  part  of  the 
French  troops  were,  nevertheless,  cut  to  pieces  during  a 
night  attack  at  Montigny,  and  it  was  not  until  the  autumnal 
rains  and  floods  brought  disease  into  his  camp  that  Werth 
retired.  He  remained  for  some  time  afterward  at  Cologne, 
where  he  wedded  the  Countess  Spaur  (of  an  ancient  Tyro- 
lese  family).  Ehrenbreitstein,  still  garrisoned  by  the  French, 
who  had  long  lost  Coblentz,  was  closely  besieged  by  Werth, 
and  forced  by  famine  to  capitulate,  1637. 

William  of  Hesse,  instead  of  joining  Bernard  after  the 
battle  of  Ncerdlingen,  had  raised  troops  with  the  money  re- 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR  1041 

ceived  by  him  from  France  and  had  seized  Paderborn,  which 
was  retaken  by  the  imperialists  in  1636.  George  von  Lune- 
burg,  who  had,  in  1634,  become  the  head  of  the  Guelphic 
house  on  the  death  of  Frederick  Ulric  of  Wolfenbuttel, 
long  hesitated  to  give  in  his  adhesion  to  the  treaty  of 
Prague,  but  Oxenstierna,  on  becoming  acquainted  with  his 
intercourse  with  the  emperor,  depriving  him,  by  means  of 
Sperreuter,  of  his  best  regiments,  his  hesitation  ceased  and 
he  acceded  to  the  emperor's  terms.  Sperreuter,  who  had 
deserted  with  the  Lower  Saxon  regiments  to  the  Swedish 
general,  Banner,  now  went  over  to  the  emperor,  and  Baudis 
to  Saxon}r.  A  reaction  took  place  in  all  the  German  regi- 
ments under  the  Swedish  standard,  of  which  the  Prague 
confederation  failed  to  take  advantage,  and  their  command- 
ers were  bribed  by  Kniphausen  to  remain  in  the  pay  of  Swe- 
den. This  general  fell,  in  January,  1636,  at  Haselune,  dur- 
ing an  engagement  with  Geleen,  who  was  beaten  off  the 
field.  Minden  was  betrayed,  in  May,  by  the  commandant 
Ludingshausen,  Kniphausen's  son-in-law,  to  the  Swedes. 

The  remnant  of  the  old  Swedish  army  under  Banner 
found  itself  exposed  to  the  greatest  danger  by  the  conclu- 
sion of  peace  at  Prague.  Banner  had,  together  with  the 
elector  of  Saxony,  advanced  upon  Bohemia,  whence  he  was 
now  compelled  to  retreat.  On  the  alliance  between  George 
von  Luneburg  and  Saxony,  Baudis  was  despatched  against 
him,  November,  1635,  but  was  defeated  at  Duemitz,  and  Ban- 
ner, dreading  to  be  cut  off  by  an  imperia'  corps  under  the 
Bohemian,  Marzin,  who  had  taken  Stargard  by  storm  and 
pillaged  that  town,  withdrew  to  Pomerania.  During  this 
autumn,  the  French  ambassador,  d'Avaux,  had  succeeded 
in  bringing  about  a  reconciliation  between  Wladislaw  of 
Poland  and  Sweden,  and  in  terminating  the  long  war  be- 
tween those  countries.  The  Swedish  regiments  under  Tor- 
stenson  consequently  evacuated  Livonia  and  Prussia  and 
united  with  those  under  Banner;  while,  on  the  other  hand, 
a  wild  troop  of  Polish  Cossacks  marched  to  the  aid  of  the 
emperor.     This  cunning  policy  on  the  part  of  France  caused 

Germany.    Vol.  III. — 6 


1042  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

the  war  to  rage  with  redoubled  fury.  Banner  and  Torsten- 
son  defeated  the  Saxons  in  the  depth  of  winter  at  Goldberg 
and  Kiritz,  and,  in  February,  Banner  again  invaded  Saxony 
and  cruelly  visited  the  defection  of  the  elector  on  the  heads 
of  his  wretched  subjects.  The  arrival  of  Hatzfeld  at  the 
head  of  a  body  of  imperialists  compelled  him  to  retire  behind 
Magdeburg,  where  Baudis  was  severely  wounded  and  relin- 
quished the  command.  Each  side  now  confined  itself  to 
manoeuvring  until  the  arrival  of  reinforcements.  The  Swe- 
dish troops  arrived  first,  and  Hatzfeld  and  the  Saxons,  being 
drawn  into  an  engagement  at  Wittstock,  before  Gcetz  was 
able  to  join  them,  were  totally  defeated.  Hatzfeld  was 
wounded,  and  the  elector  lost  the  whole  of  his  baggage 
and  treasure.  Saxony  was  again  laid  waste  by  Banner's 
infuriated  troops.  The  gallant  defence  of  Leipzig  increased 
their  rage.  All  the  towns  and  villages  in  the  vicinity  were 
reduced  to  ashes.  A  similar  fate  befell  Misnia,  Wurzen, 
Oschatz,  Colditz,  Liebwerda,  and  several  smaller  towns. 
The  peasants  fled  in  crowds  to  the  fortified  cities  and  to 
the  mountains,  and,  to  complete  the  general  misery,  famine 
and  pestilence  succeeded  to  the  sword  and  the  firebrand.  A 
bloody  revenge  was  taken  by  Derflinger  with  a  Brandenburg 
squadron  on  a  thousand  Swedish  horse  that  ventured  into  the 
province  of  Mansfeld.  Banner  finally  assembled  his  troops 
and  intrenched  himself  in  Torgau,  which  he  stored  with  pro- 
visions, while  Gallas,  Gcetz,  Hatzfeld,  and  the  elector  of  Sax- 
ony advanced  to  the  attack. 

CCX.    Death  of  Ferdinand  the  Second — Pestilence  and 
Famine — Bernard  von   Weimar — Banner 

The  favor  of  the  electoral  princes  being  secured  by  the 
treaty  of  Prague,  they  were,  in  the  autumn  of  1636,  con- 
voked by  Ferdinand  II.  to  Ratisbon,  for  the  purpose  of  elect- 
ing bis  son,  the  Archduke  Ferdinand,  as  his  successor  on  the 
throne.  Ferdinand  II.  expired,  in  1637,  after  having  the 
gratification  of  quelling  the  revolt  of  the  peasantry  in  Car- 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR  1043 

niola  and  Upper  Austria.     In  Erfurt,  the  imperial  general, 
Hatzfeld,  seized  the  government,  imprisoned  and  tortured 
the  Lutheran  clergy,  and  drained  the  coffers  of  the  citizens. 
Nuremberg,  Augsburg  and  Ulm  met  with  an  almost  similar 
treatment. 

Ferdinand  bequeathed  the  empire  to  his  son,  Ferdinand 
III.,  a  man  of  insignificant  character,  whose  mother,  Maria, 
also  a  Habsburg,  was  daughter  to  Philip  III.  of  Spain.  The 
late  emperor,  notwithstanding  the  immense  scale  on  which 
he  performed  his  part  and  the  unheard-of  calamities  which, 
worse  than  the  worst  of  despots,  he  inflicted  upon  his  subjects, 
did  not  live  to  witness  the  triumph  of  his  party.  Napoleon, 
who  carried  fire  and  sword  almost  throughout  Europe, 
brought  less  death  and  sorrow  on  the  world  than  this  quiet 
and  devout  emperor,  to  whose  religious  and  political  fanati- 
cism ten  millions  of  his  fellow  men  were  sacrificed.  The 
people  were  deprived  by  him  of  their  political  and  religious 
liberty.  The  ancient  German  constitution  was  annulled  and 
the  principles  of  absolute  monarchy,  like  those  of  Spain,  were 
for  the  first  time  carried  into  practice  in  the  hereditary  prov- 
inces of  the  Habsburg,  and  ere  long  in  those  of  Germany. 
The  assembling  of  the  Estates  became  an  empty  court  cere- 
mony. Had  the  emperor  triumphed,  Germany  would  at 
least  have  been  rewarded  with  the  acquisition  of  unity  for 
the  loss  of  her  liberty,  but  her  evil  destiny  deprived  her  of 
the  one  without  granting  the  other. 

During  the  year  in  which  the  old  emperor  closed  his  eyes 
that  had  so  long  gloated  on  blood,  the  misery  that  reigned 
throughout  Germany  had  reached  the  highest  pitch;  the 
horrors  of  the  long  war,  the  destruction  of  the  towns  and 
villages  by  fire,  the  torture  and  murder  of  the  citizens  and 
peasantry  by  the  soldiery,  were  accompained  by  a  famine, 
which  depopulated  whole  districts;  the  land  remained  un- 
cultivated, and  a  pestilence  resulted  from  want,  bad  food, 
and  the  putridity  of  the  air  occasioned  by  the  heaps  of  un- 
buried  dead.  The  soldier,  driven  by  necessity  as  well  as  by 
love  of  rapine,  snatched  the  last  morsel  from  the  hands  of 


1044  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

the  famishing  wretches  that  remained.  Bands  of  Maraud- 
ers (Merode-brothers,  so  called  from  their  leader,  the  Count 
von  Merode),  composed  of  peasantry  and  of  homeless  wan- 
derers, who  sometimes  aided  one  party,  sometimes  another, 
cruelly  avenging  themselves  on  the  soldiery  or  joining  them 
in  their  predatory  excursions,  ranged  the  country  and  forced 
the  inhabitants,  by  the  infliction  of  the  most  horrid  tortures, 
to  open  their  concealed  hoards  of  provisions  or  of  treasure. 
Whole  provinces  were  so  completely  pillaged  as  to  afford  no 
sustenance  to  the  troops,  and  men  and  children  fought  like 
wolves  for  a  morsel  of  carrion. 

The  historians  of  this  period  graphically  describe  this  ex- 
cess of  misery.  Ferdinand  II.,  on  his  accession  to  the  throne, 
found  Austria  Lutheran,  thickly  populated,  and  prosperous; 
he  left  her  Catholic,  depopulated,  and  impoverished.  He 
found  in  Bohemia  three  million  Hussites  dwelling  in  flour- 
ishing cities  and  villages,  he  left  merely  seven  hundred  and 
eighty  thousand  Catholic  beggars.  Silesia,  happy  and  bloom- 
ing, was  laid  desolate;  most  of  her  little  cities  and  villages 
had  been  burned  to  the  ground,  her  inhabitants  put  to  the 
sword.  Saxony,  the  Mere,  and  Pomerania  had  shared  the 
same  melancholy  fate.  Mecklenburg  and  the  whole  of  Lower 
Saxony  had  been  ruined  by  battles,  sieges,  and  invasions. 
Hesse  lay  utterly  waste.  In  the  Pfalz,  the  living  fed  upon 
the  dead,  mothers  on  their  babes,  brethren  on  each  other. 
In  the  Netherlands,  Liege,  Luxemburg,  Lorraine,  similar 
scenes  of  horror  were  of  frequent  occurrence.  The  whole  of 
the  Rhenish  provinces  lay  desert.  Swabia  and  Bavaria  were 
almost  entirely  depopulated.  The  Tyrol  and  Switzerland  had 
escaped  the  horrors  of  war,  but  were  ravaged  by  pestilence. 
Such  was  the  aspect  of  Europe  on  the  death  of  Ferdinand 
II.,  who,  like  an  aged  hyena,  expired  amid  mouldering  bones 
and  ruins. 

Bernard  von  Weimar  a  second  time  visited  Paris,  where 
he  was  now  upheld  by  Oxenstierna  through  his  friend,  Hugo 
Grotius  (the  Swedes  being  unable  to  take  any  measures  in 
the  North  so  long  as  he  remained  fixed  in  the  South).     He, 


THB    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR  1045 

in  the  meantime,  allowed  his  troops  to  pillage  Champagne, 
which  speedily  induced  the  French  monarch  to  furnish  him 
with  the  means  of  satisfying  the  demands  of  his  soldiery. 
Charles,  duke  of  Lorraine,  and  Mercy,  the  Bavarian,  had, 
meanwhile,  fixed  their  quarters  in  Burgundy.  A  bloody  en- 
gagement took  place  with  the  latter  at  Besancon,  in  which 
Bernard,  who  crossed  the  Saone  on  horseback  at  the  head  of 
his  men  in  the  face  of  the  enemy,  was  victorious.  Isle,  Lure, 
and  several  other  Burgundian  fortresses  fell  successively  into 
his  hands,  and,  in  1637,  he  again  pushed  forward  as  far  as 
the  Rhine,  where  he  strongly  fortified  the  islands.  Twice 
surprised  by  John  von  Werth,  he  plunged  into  the  stream 
and  escaped  by  swimming.  Still,  notwithstanding  the  cow- 
ardice of  the  French  troops,  almost  the  whole  of  whom  ran 
away,  success  crowned  his  efforts.  The  winter  quarters  on 
the  Rhine  being  insecure,  he  suddenly  crossed  the  stream 
with  his  dismounted  cavalry,  a  disease  having  carried  off 
their  horses,  and  threw  himself  among  the  mountains  in  the 
bishopric  of  Basel,  where  no  enemy  had  yet  penetrated,  and 
which  was  well  stored  with  supplies.  The  opposition  made 
by  the  peasantry  and  the  threats  of  the  Catholic  Swiss, 
whose  Protestant  countrymen  sided  with  him,  were  equally 
unavailing.  The  fortifications  on  the  Rhine  were,  mean- 
while, speedily  taken  by  Werth  from  the  cowardly  French 
garrisons,  while  his  unworthy  colleague,  the  Duke  di  Savelli, 
vainly  sought  to  draw  Bernard  into  the  emperor's  service. 
Hugo  Grotius  was  equally  unsuccessful  in  his  project  for 
regaining  him  for  Sweden,  by  marrying  him  to  the  young 
queen,  Christina,  and  a  fresh  dispute  arose  between  Bernard 
and  France  on  account  of  the  cession  of  Veltlin  by  that  king- 
dom to  the  Grisons  and  the  consequent  abandonment  of  Due 
Rohan,  who  capitulated  to  the  Spanish  under  Serbelloni,  in 
1637,  and  took  refuge  in  Bernard's  camp. 

At  the  head  of  a  hardy  troop,  merely  six  thousand  strong, 
Bernard  unexpectedly  broke  up  his  camp  on  the  Dellsberg, 
January  17,  1638,  and  penetrated  into  the  Frickthal,  firmly 
resolved  to  maintain  himself  on  the  Upper  Rhine,  and  by 


1046  THE    HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

success,  and  fresh  levies  of  troops,  to  win  for  himself  the 
power  in  Germany  which  he  had  so  long  and  so  vainly 
attempted  to  gain  by  means  of  France.  Laufenburg  and 
Waldshut  were  taken  by  surprise.  Rheinfelden,  where  four 
hundred  of  the  garrison  were  destroyed  by  the  explosion  of  a 
mine,  made  a  gallant  defence.  John  von  Werth  and  Savelli 
hastened  to  its  relief,  and,  on  the  18th  February,  a  desperate 
engagement  took  place  beneath  the  city  walls.  Bernard, 
overwhelmed  by  numbers,  was  forced  to  quit  the  field;  the 
brave  Rheingrave  fell,  and  Rohan  was  wounded.  But  on 
the  21st,  Bernard  unexpectedly  assailed  the  enemy  while  cel- 
ebrating their  victory  in  Rheinfelden  and  completely  routed 
them.  Both  the  leaders,  the  gallant  John  von  Werth  and 
the  worthless  Savelli,  Generals  Enkefort  and  Sperreuter, 
with  almost  the  whole  of  the  army,  were  taken  prisoners. 
John  von  Werth,  contrary  to  the  promise  given  by  Bernard, 
was  sent  a  prisoner  to  Paris,  where  he  was  treated  with  great 
distinction.  Savelli  was  sent  on  his  parole  to  Laufenburg, 
whence  he  found  means  to  escape. 

Bernard  continued  to  pursue  the  enemy  and  to  collect  re- 
inforcements. His  old  school-fellow,  Guebriant,  joined  him 
with  a  small  number  of  French.  Rheinfelden  and  Freiburg 
in  the  Breisgau  fell  into  his  hands.  Taupadel  took  Stuttgard. 
The  possession  of  Breisach,  the  key  to  the  whole  of  Upper 
Germany,  was  keenly  disputed.  Goetz,  the  field-marshal  of 
the  empire,  hastening  to  its  relief,  was  routed  at  Benfeld  by 
Taupadel.  The  battle  of  Wittenweyer,  in  which  Bernard, 
whose  forces  were  far  less  considerable,  was  victorious  over 
Goetz  and  Savelli  and  an  army  of  eighteen  thousand  five 
hundred  men,  followed.  Taupadel,  who  had  rashly  ventured 
too  far  in  pursuit,  was  captured  by  Savelli,  who  kept  him  in 
close  imprisonment.  Breisach  still  refused  to  capitulate,  and 
the  besieging  army  suffered  a  considerable  loss  from  the  at- 
tacks of  the  peasants  of  the  Black  Forest.  Horst,  who  was 
bringing  a  supply  of  flour  and  powder,  was  forced  to  retreat 
and  was  deprived  of  part  of  his  stores.  Charles,  duke  of 
Lorraine,  when  attempting  to  relieve  the  city,  was  taken 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'   WAR  1047 

prisoner  at  Thann.  Bernard,  who  had  for  some  time  been 
suffering  from  fever,  being  carried  from  the  field  half  dead 
to  his  camp,  Gcetz  attempted  to  take  him  unawares,  and  had 
already  reached  the  bridges  over  the  Rhine,  when  Bernard, 
springing  from  his  couch,  bestrode  his  battle-steed,  and 
rushed  to  the  defence.  The  troops,  inspired  with  enthusi- 
asm at  the  sight  of  an  eagle  hovering  over  his  head,  pressed 
forward,  and,  after  a  dreadful  struggle,  succeeded  in  rout- 
ing the  imperialists,  numbers  of  whom  were  drowned  in  the 
Rhine.  Breisach  was  driven  by  famine  to  capitulate.  The 
garrison  was  promised  food  and  free  egress.  The  treatment 
of  the  prisoners  taken  by  the  imperialists  during  the  siege, 
some  of  whom  were  starved  to  death,  while  the  rest  fed  upon 
their  comrades,  was  not  known  until  the  terms  of  capitula- 
tion had  been  acceded  to;  Bernard,  nevertheless,  although 
his  heart  burned  within  him,  remained  true  to  his  given 
word. 

Savelli,  the  fitting  favorite  of  the  Jesuits  and  of  the 
Viennese  court,  had,  with  consistent  baseness,  effected  the 
removal  and  imprisonment  of  his  worthier  rival,  Gcetz.  On 
the  fall  of  Breisach,  he  had  again  recourse  to  diplomacy,  and 
called  upon  Bernard,  in  the  name  of  his  country,  to  join  the 
emperor.  Bernard  replied,  "that  a  duke  of  Saxony  needed 
no  lesson  in  patriotism  from  an  Italian  duca, "  and,  garri- 
soning Breisach  with  German  troops,  refused  to  deliver  that 
fort  into  the  hands  of  the  French.  But,  either  for  the  pur- 
pose of  pacifying  Richelieu,  or  of  providing  Breisach  with 
fresh  stores,  he  returned  to  Burgundy  during  the  depth  of 
winter,  and  seized  that  part  of  the  earldom  which  had  hith- 
erto escaped  the  ravages  of  war.  The  peasantry  were  de- 
feated, the  lofty,  rocky  stronghold  of  Joux  was  taken,  and 
an  immense  number  of  horses  and  stores  of  every  description 
were  carried  to  Breisach.  Richelieu  made  fresh  advances, 
but,  being  personally  offended  by  Bernard's  refusal  of  the 
hand  of  his  niece  and  heiress,  Margaret  de  Vignerot,  he, 
from  that  moment,  resolved  upon  his  ruin.  Erlach,  one  of 
Bernard's  most   confidential   officers,    was    bribed  with   an 


1048  THE    HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

annuity  of  twelve  thousand  livres  to  betray  his  noble-spirited 
master.  Bernard's  intention  to  maintain  himself  independ- 
ent of  France  was  clearly  evident.  He  placed  German  gar- 
risons in  all  the  strongholds,  received  petitions  as  the  sover- 
eign of  Alsace,  negotiated  with  Sweden,  and,  unadvised  by 
France,  sought  an  alliance  with  Hesse.  His  death  speedily 
followed.  On  his  way  to  Pfirt  he  was  suddenly  taken  ill, 
and  was  carried  to  Neuburg,  where  he  expired,  in  1639. 
Almost  all  contemporary  writers  assert  his  having  been 
poisoned  by  a  French  emissary.  "Germany,"  wrote  Hugo 
Grotius,  "was,  in  this  prince,  deprived  of  her  greatest  orna- 
ment and  of  her  last  hope,  of  almost  the  only  one  worthy  of 
the  name  of  a  German  prince. ' '  ' 

Bernard  bequeathed  his  conquests  and  the  whole  of  his 
personal  property  to  his  brother,  to  the  express  exclusion  of 
France;  but  the  traitor,  Erlach,  to  whom  he  had  intrusted 
Breisach,  delivered  that  fortress  up  to  France,  seized  the 
whole  of  his  treasures,  appropriated  the  most  valuable  por- 
tion to  himself,  and  distributed  two  hundred  thousand  dollars 
among  the  soldiery  as  a  French  largesse,  in  consideration  of 
which  they  were  bound  to  serve  France  until  the  question 
of  the  inheritance  was  settled.  This  settlement  never  took 
place.  The  German  officers  and  soldiers  were  kept  in  a  state 
of  uncertainty,  and  the  possibility  of  a  mutiny  on  their  part 
was  obviated  by  the  fortresses  being  garrisoned  half  with 
French,  half  with  Germans,  until  the  inactivity  of  the 
Swedes,  the  helplessness  of  the  dukes  of  Weimar,  and  the 
seduction  practiced  upon  the  troops,  left  the  German  officers 
no  alternative  than  to  remain  in  the  French  service,  to  which 
they  yielded  the  more  readily  on  the  appointment  of  their 
ancient  comrade,  Guebriant,  to  their  command. 

The  young  Pfalzgraf,  Charles  Louis,  the  son  of  the  un- 
fortunate king  of  Bohemia,  made  a  futile  attempt  to  replace 

1  Bernard  von  Weimar  was  a  handsome  man,  scarcely  in  his  thirtieth  year, 
with  a  manly,  sunburned  countenance.  His  hair,  which  was  remarkably  long, 
lay  in  thick,  bright  curls  upon  his  shoulders.  He  never  married,  and  was 
equally  chaste  and  pious.  He  daily  devoted  several  hours  to  the  study  of  the 
Bible,  which  he  knew  almost  entirely  by  heart 


THE    THIRTY  YEARS'   WAR  1049 

the  loss  of  Bernard.  Assisted  by  the  English,  and  by  his 
gallant  brother,  Robert  (Bernard's  rival  with  the  beautiful 
Rohan),  he  had  raised  a  little  army  on  the  coasts  of  northern 
Germany,  but  was,  in  October,  1638,  defeated  at  Vlotho  by 
Hatzfeld.  He  escaped  with  great  difficulty.  Robert  was 
taken  prisoner.  Charles  Louis  returned  to  England,  whence, 
in  the  hope  of  placing  himself,  on  Bernard's  death,  at  the 
head  of  his  leaderless  army,  he  hastened,  with  a  sum  of 
money,  to  Alsace,  but — through  France,  where,  by  Riche- 
lieu's order,  he  was  deprived  of  his  treasure,  and  kept  pris- 
oner at  Vincennes,  until  Bernard's  army  had  sworn  allegi- 
ance to  France,  when,  on  his  binding  himself  by  oath  never 
to  act  against  the  interests  of  that  country,  he  was  contume- 
liously  set  at  liberty. 

William,  Landgrave  of  Hesse,  meanwhile,  driven  out  of 
his  territories,  which  had  been  confiscated  by  the  emperor, 
had  thrown  himself  into  East  Friesland,  where  he  laid  the 
country  waste  and  raised  fresh  troops  with  the  money  taken 
from  the  inhabitants.  He  died  in  1637.  The  contest  with 
the  emperor  was  carried  on  after  his  death  by  his  widow, 
Amelia  Elizabeth,  while  the  Hessian  Estates  and  their  gen- 
eral Holzappel  concluded  a  truce,  in  order  to  spare  the  coun- 
try, three  hundred  villages  having  been  burned  to  the  ground 
by  Geleen.  The  duchess,  a  zealous  Calvinist,  demanded,  as 
a  pledge  of  the  emperor's  good  faith,  the  toleration  of  Cal- 
vinism, Lutheranism  being  alone  tolerated  by  the  treaty  of 
Prague.  Had  the  three  forms  of  worship  been  at  once  placed 
on  an  equal  footing,  how  much  needless  misery  might  not 
Germany  have  been  spared!  Her  demand  was  left  un- 
noticed during  a  whole  year. — George  von  Luneburg,  al- 
though a  party  to  the  treaty  of  Prague,  remained  in  close 
alliance  with  Sweden,  preserved  a  strict  neutrality,  and 
guarded  his  possessions.  Kcenigsmark  of  Brandenburg,  a 
Swedish  general,  one  of  the  boldest  robbers  of  the  day,  de- 
vastated the  Eichsfeld  with  German  troops  and  levied  con- 
tributions upon  the  bishop  of  Wurzburg,  Hatzfeld's  brother, 
in  1639. 


1050  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

The  French  confining  themselves  to  the  occupation  of 
Alsace,  the  emperor,  Bavaria,  Saxony,  and  Brandenburg 
turned  their  united  forces  against  the  Swedes.  The  claims 
of  Brandenburg  upon  Pomerania  on  the  death  of  Bozislaw, 
the  last  of  her  dukes,  in  1637,  had  been  treated  with  de- 
rision by  the  Swedes,  and,  from  that  moment,  the  elector 
George  William,  aided  by  his  general  Klitzing,  had  discov- 
ered the  greatest  zeal  in  opposing  them.  Arnheim,  who  had 
thrown  up  his  command  and  was  living  peaceably  at  Boitzen- 
burg,  was  seized  by  the  Swedes,  who  dreaded  lest  he  might 
replace  himself  at  the  head  of  the  Saxons,  and  sent  to  Stock- 
holm. Gallas,  Hatzfeld,  Gcetz,  and  Geleen,  meanwhile,  at- 
tacked Banner  and  drove  him  from  his  intrenchments  in 
Torgau;  but,  although  completely  surrounded,  he  contrived 
by  means  of  a  ruse  to  escape  across  the  Oder  to  Landsberg, 
where,  disappointed  in  meeting  Wrangel,  he  found  himself 
exposed  to  the  most  imminent  danger,  shut  in  between  the 
imperial  army,  the  Warthe,  and  the  Polish  frontiers,  which 
the  fear  of  involving  Poland  in  a  fresh  war  withheld  him 
from  crossing.  With  extraordinary  presence  of  mind  he 
made  a  feigned  march  toward  Poland,  drew  the  imperial 
army  on  that  side,  and  succeeded  in  drawing  himself  out  of 
his  perilous  situation  without  incurring  the  slightest  loss, 
Jul}~,  1637.  "They  caught  me  in  the  sack,"  said  he,  "but 
forgot  to  tie  it  up!"  He  retreated  to  the  sea,  while  Gal- 
las laid  the  whole  country  waste,  took  Havelberg,  Doemitz 
and  Wolgast,  where  he  destroyed  the  magnificent  castle  of 
the  Pomeranian  dukes;  the  more  ancient  one  in  Schwedt 
had,  at  an  earlier  period,  been  burned  by  the  Swedes.  The 
Mere  suffered  in  an  equal  degree,  and,  exactly  at  this  mo- 
ment, Klitzing,  offended  at  the  conduct  of  Burgsdorf,  the 
elector's  favorite,  withdrew  from  the  scene  of  action.  The 
peasants  in  Drcemling  rose  against  the  plundering  soldiery 
and  captured  their  artillery.  Gallas's  men,  neglected,  as  in 
Alsace,  by  their  voluptuous  general,  were  driven  by  famine 
to  desert  in  troops  to  Banner,  who  had  in  the  meantime 
again  drawn  George  von  Luneburg  on  his  side  with  a  prom- 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR  1051 

ise  of  confirming  him  in  the  possession  of  Hildesheim.  A 
fresh  treaty  was  concluded,  in  1638,  between  Sweden  and 
France,  and,  in  the  spring  of  1639,  Banner  again  took  the 
field,  and,  after  defeating  Marzin,  who  at  that  time  headed 
the  Saxons,  near  Chemnitz,  and  taking  a  corps  under  Hof- 
kirch  and  Montecuculi  prisoner  near  Brandeis,  overran  Bo- 
hemia as  far  as  Prague,  where  he  encamped  on  the  Weissen 
Berg.  A  small  Swedish  corps  under  Stalhantsch  occupied 
Silesia,  where  the  famine  was  so  dreadful  that  at  Hirsch- 
berg,  for  instance,  almost  the  whole  of  the  inhabitants  died 
of  hunger,  and  the  few  who  survived  attached  themselves  to 
the  Swedish  troop  for  the  sake  of  the  remnants  of  food  left 
by  the  soldiers.  Banner,  disappointed  in  his  hope  of  find- 
ing some  Hussites  still  in  Bohemia,  at  length  quitted  that 
wretched  country,  which  presented  a  complete  scene  of  deso- 
lation, in  order  to  join  Guebriant  and  to  prevent  the  forma- 
tion of  an  intermediate  party  in  Northern  Germany. 

The  footsteps  of  the  retreating  Swedes  were  marked  by 
fire  and  blood.  In  Thuringia  the  people  fled  in  crowds  into 
the  Harz  Forest.  The  duchess  of  Hesse  sent  a  reinforce- 
ment of  twenty  thousand  men,  and  George  of  Luneburg  sent 
Klitzing,  whom  he  had  taken  into  his  service,  with  the  whole 
of  his  forces,  to  his  aid.  The  great  imperial  army,  led  by 
the  Archduke  Leopold,  the  emperor's  brother,  and  by  Picco- 
lomini,  who  had  stepped  into  Gallas's  place  and  had  just 
been  created  Duke  d' Amain  on  account  of  a  victory  gained 
by  him  at  Diederhoven  in  the  Netherlands  over  the  French, 
came  up  with  Banner  at  Saalfeld,  where  both  armies  re- 
mained encamped  opposite  to  one  another,  without  ventur- 
ing an  engagement,  and  suffering  terribly  from  famine,  the 
whole  country  in  the  vicinity  having  been  laid  desert.  Ban- 
ner's wife,  a  Countess  Erlach,  dying  in  his  camp  in  1640, 
he  bore  her  remains,  accompanied  by  his  whole  army,  to 
Erfurt,  where  his  tears  were  speedily  dried  by  a  passion  for 
the  Princess  Johanna  of  Baden-Durlach,  whom  he  met  there 
by  chance.  Piccolomini  also  quitted  Saalfeld  in  order  to  join 
the   Bavarians   under  Mercy,  who  had  been  employed  in 


1052  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

watching  the  movements  of  the  Weimarians  in  Swabia  and 
the  Pfalz,  and  the  two  armies  again  met  near  Neustadt,  but 
without  coming  to  an  engagement.  Both  sides,  meanwhile, 
fell  a  prey  to  famine  and  pestilence.  Holzappel,  who  had 
attempted  to  form  a  German  party  independent  of  France 
and  Sweden,  threw  up  his  commission  in  disgust,  and  a  sep- 
arate alliance  was  formed  between  the  duchess  and  George. 
Banner,  equally  indifferent  to  the  movements  of  the  imperial 
army  and  to  the  remonstrances  of  Guebriant,  followed  the 
Princess  Johanna  to  Waldeck,  where  he  solemnized  his  mar- 
riage with  her.  He  took  up  his  winter  quarters  at  Hildes- 
heim  with  George  von  Luneburg.  Both  George  and  Banner 
are  said  to  have  been  poisoned  during  the  festivities  that  took 
place;  the  ill-health  of  the  former  may,  however,  be  ascribed, 
on  stronger  grounds,  to  mental  anxiety,  that  of  the  latter  to 
debauchery.     Taupadel  was  exchanged  for  Sperreuter. 

An  attempt  made  during  this  winter  by  Banner  to  seize 
the  person  of  the  emperor,  who  had  convoked  a  diet  at  Ratis- 
bon,  was  frustrated  by  the  rising  of  the  Danube,  occasioned 
by  a  sudden  thaw.  Guebriant,  fearful  of  the  desertion  of 
the  Weimar  troops  should  he  quit  the  Rhine,  abandoning 
him  to  the  emperor,  who  was  advanciDg  at  the  head  of  an 
overwhelming  force,  he  retreated  through  Bohemia  into  Sax- 
ony. Three  Swedish  regiments  under  Colonel  Slangen  were 
cut  to  pieces,  after  gallantly  defending  his  rear,  at  Wald- 
Neuburg.  Although  rejoined  by  Guebriant,  he  was  still  un- 
able to  cope  with  his  antagonists,  and,  after  vainly  attempt- 
ing the  defence  of  the  Saal  near  Merseburg,  was  compelled 
to  take  refuge  in  Halberstadt,  where,  worn  out  with  his  lin- 
gering sickness,  he  expired,  May,  1641.  George  von  Lune- 
burg had  preceded  him  to  the  grave,  and  Arnheim,  who 
had  escaped  from  his  Swedish  prison  to  place  himself  at 
the  head  of  the  intermediate  party,  had  also  died  not  long 
before. 

The  advance  of  Piccolomini  to  the  relief  of  Wolfenbuttel, 
where  the  imperial  garrison  had  long  held  out  against  the 
besieging  Protestants,  terminated  the  disputes  already  rife  in 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR  1053 

the  Swedish  camp,  and  all  the  Protestant  troops,  those  of 
llesse  alone  excepted,  instantly  reuniting,  a  brilliant  victory 
was  gained  beneath  the  walls  of  Wolfenbuttel  by  the  Weimar 
troops  under  Guebriant,  those  oi'  Banner  under  Wraugel, 
Pfuel,  and  Koenigsmark,  and  the  Luneburg  regiments  under 
Klitzing.  The  Hessians  rejoined  them  after  the  conflict,  but 
Guebriant,  attempting  to  follow  up  the  advantage  unaided 
by  the  Swedes,  who  refused  to  act  until  the  arrival  of  Tor- 
steuson,  was  twice  discomfited,  and  William  Otto,  count  of 
Nassau,  was  slain. 

Eberhard  von  Wurtemberg  had  meanwhile,  1641,  re- 
paired to  Vienna,  made  his  submission  to  the  emperor  and 
been  restored  to  his  possessions,  which  had  been  entirely  de- 
populated and  laid  waste  by  the  imperial  troops. 

CCXI.    Torstenson — John  von  Werth—The  Peace  of 

Westphalia 

The  listlessness  with  which  the  war  was  carried  on  in 
Germany  proved  that  the  moment  for  concluding  the  peace, 
so  earnestly  desired  by  all  parties,  had  arrived.  Ferdinand 
III.,  and  even  Maximilian  of  Bavaria,  recognized  the  impos- 
sibility of  completely  suppressing  the  Reformation  and  the 
necessity  of  conciliation.  Peace,  nevertheless,  could  not  be 
concluded;  France  and  Sweden  still  sought  to  tear  the  prey 
from  each  other's  grasp.  In  France,  after  the  death  of 
Cardinal  Richelieu,  1642,  and  that  of  Louis  XIII. ,  1643, 
the  government  had  been  undertaken,  in  the  name  of  the 
youthful  monarch,  Louis  XIV.,  by  Cardinal  Mazarin,  who 
pursued  a  policy  similar  to  that  of  his  predecessor  in  office, 
and  refused  to  bring  the  war  to  a  termination  until  France 
had  prostrated  Germany  at  her  feet.  In  Sweden,  Oxenstiema 
and  the  Swedish  aristocracy,  instead  of  following  in  the  foot- 
steps of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  who  had  projected  the  union  of 
Sweden  with  Germany,  the  triumph  of  the  gospel,  and  the 
marriage  of  his  daughter,  Christina,  with  Frederick  William 
of  Brandenburg,  solely  aimed  at  the  conversion  of  the  Ger- 


1054:  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

man  coasts  of  the  Baltic  into  a  Swedish  province,  and  re- 
jected the  alliance  of  the  elector  of  Brandenburg,  who,  visit- 
ing Stockholm  in  1637,  Christina  quitted  that  city  without 
deigning  to  receive  him.  Her  mother,  the  aunt  of  the  in- 
tended bridegroom,  was  also  compelled  to  quit  the  kingdom. 

Frederick  William,  afterward  surnamed  the  Great  Elec- 
tor, succeeded  his  father,  George  William,  in  Brandenburg, 
in  1640.  This  prince  might  easily  have  placed  himself  at 
the  head  of  all  the  Protestants  in  Northern  Germany,  have 
concluded  an  advantageous  peace  with  the  emperor,  and 
have  chased  the  handful  of  Swedes  and  French,  disputing 
like  vultures  over  the  remnants  of  their  prey,  across  the 
frontiers;  but  distrust  of  the  Catholics,  of  the  sovereigns 
ruled  by  the  Jesuits,  had  struck  root  too  deeply,  and  the 
edict  of  restitution  was  still  too  recent  for  him  at  that  period 
to  pursue  the  policy  he  afterward  adopted.  He  might  pos- 
sibly have  been  also  disinclined  to  play  a  part  subordinate  to 
that  acted  by  Saxony,  and  have  hoped,  by  opposing  the  false 
Saxon,  to  be  recognized  as  the  first  Protestant  prince  in 
Germany  on  the  demise  of  George,  when  Brandenburg,  in 
fact,  first  superseded  Saxony  as  the  head  of  the  German 
Protestants. 

The  Guelphs,  Christian  Louis  von  Calenberg,  Frederick 
von  Celle,  and  Augustus  von  Wolfenbuttel,  went  over,  not- 
withstanding the  victory  gained  by  them  beneath  the  walls 
of  Wolfenbuttel,  to  the  emperor,  who  confirmed  Calenberg 
in  the  possession  of  Hildesheim.  The  influence  of  this  family 
was  considerably  weakened  by  the  division  of  its  possessions 
among  its  different  members. 

The  war,  meanwhile,  continued,  the  Germans  remaining 
true  to  the  colors  of  both  France  and  Sweden,  the  latter  of 
which  sent  a  small  body  of  reinforcements,  scarcely  seven 
thousand  strong,  and  a  fresh  leader,  Leonard  Torstenson, 
who,  late  in  the  autumn  of  1641,  took  the  command  of  Ban- 
ner's late  troops.  Guebriant  separated  from  him  in  order  to 
oppose  Lamboy  on  the  Lower  .Rhine.  In  the  spring  of  1642, 
after  encamping  at  Salzwedel  in  sight  of  Piccolomini  without 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR  1055 

being  able  to  bring  him  to  an  engagement,  he  suddenly  in- 
vaded Silesia,  which  Francis  Albert  von  Lauenburg  had  just 
wrested  from  Stalhantsch,  defeated  Lauenburg  near  Schweid- 
nitz,  took  him  prisoner  and  entered  Moravia,  with  the  view 
of  forming  an  alliance  with  Ragoczy,  prince  of  Transylvania, 
and  of  besieging  Vienna;  but  that  prince,  who,  like  Bethlen 
Gabor,  merely  made  use  of  the  Protestants  for  the  purpose 
of  extorting  favorable  terms  from  the  emperor,  showed  no 
inclination  to  lend  him  aid.  The  siege  of  Brunn,  which 
offered  a  steady  resistance,  was  abandoned.  Olmutz  and 
the  whole  of  Moravia,  hitherto  spared  by  the  ravager,  were 
plundered.  Torstenson  then  returned  to  Silesia,  burning 
Buntzlau  and  seizing  Zittau  en  route,  and  was  reinforced  by 
Koenigsmarkand  Wrangel.  The  imperialists,  who  had  taken 
a  terrible  vengeance  on  the  Protestant  Silesians,  by  whom 
Torstenson's  arrival  had  been  hailed  with  delight,  had, 
meanwhile,  fruitlessly  blockaded  Glogau,  gallantly  defended 
by  Wrangel.  Torstenson,  on  the  arrival  of  a  large  body  of 
Hungarian  reinforcements  in  the  imperial  camp,  retreated 
from  the  Oder  to  the  Elbe  and  laid  siege  to  Leipzig,  whither 
he  was  pursued  by  the  imperialists,  who,  not  far  from  Leip- 
zig, near  Breitenfeld,  twice  already  the  scene  of  their  dis- 
comfiture, met,  November  2,  1642,  for  a  third  time,  with  a 
total  defeat.  Torstenson's  horse  was  killed  under  him.  The 
Swedish  generals,  Lilienhcek  and  Slangen,  were  slain.  Two 
of  the  imperial  colonels,  Madlo  and  Defour,  who  had  been 
the  first  to  quit  the  field,  were  put  to  death.  A  reunion 
afterward  took  place  between  Torstenson  and  Guebriant, 
who  concerted  an  attack  upon  Bavaria,  which,  however,  was 
not  put  into  execution,  Guebriant  returning  to  the  Rhine, 
and  Torstenson,  after  spending  the  winter  months  in  a  futile 
siege  of  Freiburg  in  Saxony,  again  fixing  himself  in  Moravia, 
with  the  view  of  carrying  the  war  into  the  emperor's  heredi- 
tary provinces  and  of  awaiting  aid  from  Ragoczy. 

The  campaign  of  1643  was  opened  by  Gallas,  Piccolomini 
having,  after  the  disaster  of  Breitenfeld,  re-entered  the  ser- 
vice of  Spain,  and  the  archduke  having  withdrawn  to  his 


1056  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

bishopric  of  Passau;  but  Torstenson,  after  a  second  and  futile 
attempt  upon  Brunn,  unexpectedly  received  orders  to  ad- 
vance upon  Denmark,  by  whose  humiliation  alone  Sweden 
could  hope  to  secure  her  conquests  in  Northern  Germany. 
The  superiority  of  the  Danish  over  the  Swedish  fleet,  more- 
over, rendered  the  presence  of  the  army  indispensable.  Aus- 
tria and  Saxony  were  also  busily  intriguing  with  Denmark. 
The  urgency  of  the  circumstances  demanded  instant  action; 
by  a  sudden  stroke  alone  could  the  movement  to  the  rear  of 
the  Swedes  be  checked;  Torstenson,  accordingly,  mounting 
almost  the  whole  of  his  infantry,  hurried  through  Silesia  and 
in  fifteen  days  reached  flolstein.  The  Danes,  taken  by  sur- 
prise, submitted.  Jutland  was  as  rapidly  conquered,  and 
his  hungry  soldiery  took  up  their  winter  quarters  in  these 
fertile  countries,  which  had,  until  now,  escaped  the  ravages 
of  war.  The  brave  Ditmarses  alone  ventured  to  oppose  their 
unwelcome  guests.  Ragoczy,  meanwhile,  advanced  upon 
Hungary  and  kept  a  part  of  the  imperial  troops  occupied, 
so  that  Gallas  was  unable  to  follow  the  Swedes  at  the  head 
of  a  strong  enough  force  until  1644,  when,  strengthened  by 
the  junction  of  the  Danish  army  at  Kiel,  he  shut  Torstenson 
up  in  Jutland.  That  commander,  nevertheless,  contrived  to 
elude  his  vigilance,  and,  by  mounting  his  infantry,  unex- 
pectedly passed  his  opponents  and  re-entered  Germany 
where  Kcenigsmark  had,  in  the  meantime,  made  head 
against  the  Saxons,  and,  after  losing  Chemnitz,  had  taken 
Torgau.  Ragoczy  had  been  driven  out  of  Hungary  by 
Goetz.  Torstenson  was  pursued  by  Gallas,  whom  he  in  his 
turn  shut  up  in  Bern  burg,  whence,  after  losing  a  number 
of  his  men  by  famine,  he  escaped  to  Magdeburg.  Enkefort, 
marching  to  his  relief,  was  defeated  and  taken  prisoner  by 
Torstenson  at  Juterbok.  In  the  winter  of  1645,  Gallas, 
who,  in  the  midst  of  the  want  by  which  he  was  surrounded, 
continued  his  drunken  revels,  found  means  to  escape  with 
two  thousand  men  to  Bohemia.  Wrangel  was,  in  the  mean- 
time, victorious  over  the  Danes.  Hatzfeld  and  Gcetz  were 
hastily  recalled,  the  former  from  Lower  Germany,  where  he 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR  1057 

had  watched  the  movements  of  the  Hessians  and  of  Kcenigs- 
mark,  the  latter  from  Hungary,  in  order  to  protect  the 
hereditary  provinces,  which  again  lay  open  to  Torstenson. 
Bavaria  also  sent  John  von  Werth,  who  had  at  length  been 
exchanged  for  the  Swedish  field-marshal,  Horn,  to  their  aid, 
and,  in  the  spring  of  1645,  the  imperialists  took  the  field  in 
considerable  numbers.  A  bloody  engagement  took  place  at 
Jankau,  in  Bohemia.  The  imperialists,  deeming  the  victory 
secure,  dispersed  for  the  sake  of  plunder  and  were  overpow- 
ered. Hatzfeld  was  taken  prisoner.  The  whole  of  Austria 
now  lay  open  to  the  victor.  Iglau,  Krems,  and  Kornneu- 
burg  were  taken,  and  the  country  was  laid  waste  up  to  the 
gates  of  Vienna.  Torstenson  was,  notwithstanding,  unable, 
from  want  of  artillery,  to  lay  formal  siege  to  Vienna,  whence 
the  empress  and  her  court  had  fled  into  the  mountains,  Ra- 
goczy,  instead  of  supporting  the  Swedes,  accepted  a  bribe 
from  the  emperor,  and  Count  Buchheim,  who  had  until  now 
been  engaged  in  opposing  the  Hungarians,  advancing  to  the 
relief  of  Vienna,  Torstenson  retired  and  finally  evacuated 
Moravia  after  another  ineffectual  attempt  upon  Brunn.  His 
restless  lieutenant,  Kcenigsmark,  who  now  aided  the  French, 
now  the  Hessians,  now  rejoined  the  main  body  of  the 
Swedes  or  pillaged  the  country  on  his  own  account,  had,  in 
the  interim,  blockaded  Dresden  and  compelled  the  elector  of 
Saxony  to  accede  to  a  truce,  consequently  to  recede  from  the 
imperial  party,  in  1645.  This  important  success  brought 
repose  to  the  Swedes.  Torstenson,  long  a  victim  to  gout, 
finally  ceded  the  command  to  Gustavus  Wrangel  and  re- 
turned to  Sweden.  During  this  year  Denmark  also  pur- 
chased peace  with  Sweden  by  the  cession  of  the  island  of 
Oesel. 

In  1642,  Guebriant  had  set  out  for  the  Lower  Rhine,  and 
had  defeated  and  captured  Lamboy  on  the  Hulser  heath, 
near  Kempen.  Hatzfeld,  who  was  at  that  time  watching 
the  movements  of  the  Hessians  and  guarding  Cologne,  re- 
treated lefore  his  superior  forces  into  the  Alps,  leaving  the 
Catholic   provinces  on  the  Rhine  at  the  mercy  of  the  foe, 


1058  THE    HISTORY    OF    GERMANY 

who  laid  the  country  waste  with  fire  and  sword.  The  Prince 
of  Orange  advanced  in  order  to  unite  his  forces  with  those 
of  Guebriant,  who  at  length  received  a  reinforcement  of 
French  troops,  four  thousand  strong,  all  of  whom  shortly 
afterward  ran  away.  John  von  Werth,  who  had  been  ex- 
changed for  Horn,  also  appeared  in  Cologne,  where  the  citi- 
zens, embittered  by  Hatzfeld's  inactivity,  embraced  his  knees 
as  their  deliverer.  Both  sides  were,  however,  too  weak  to 
hazard  an  engagement.  Guebriant  returned  in  autumn 
to  Central  Germany  with  the  view  of  attacking  Bavaria  in 
conjunction  with  Torstenson;  this  project  was,  however, 
abandoned,  and,  finding  himself  hard  pushed  by  the  Bavari- 
ans under  the  Lothringian,  Mercy,  and  John  von  Werth,  he 
once  more  retreated  upon  Breisach,  and  after  being  beaten 
from  his  quarters  in  Gceppingen,  Ofterdingen,  and  Hemmen- 
dorf,  reached  the  Kinzigthal  with  his  half-famished  troops. 
Swabia  was  reduced  to  a  state  of  indescribable  misery  by  the 
depredations  committed  by  both  parties. 

Banner's  German  army  having  been  reintegrated  by  sev- 
eral thousand  Swedes  under  Torstenson,  France  reinforced 
that  under  Guebriant  with  a  body  of  troops  under  the  Count 
de  Ranzau,  Anne  of  Austria's  handsome  and  gallant  favor- 
ite, who,  in  the  summer  of  1643,  laid  siege  to  Rotweil,  which 
was  betrayed  into  his  hands.  While  encamped,  during  No- 
vember, in  and  around  Tuttlingen,  he  was  suddenly  sur- 
rounded by  Mercy,  Charles,  duke  of  Lorraine,  Hatzfeld, 
and  John  von  Werth,  and  fell,  with  the  greater  part  of  his 
army,  into  their  hands.  Taupadel,  who  lay  sick  in  the  town, 
contrived  to  escape,  and  the  evening  before  this  unexpected 
disaster  Guebriant,  who  had  been  severely  wounded  dur- 
ing the  siege  of  Rotweil,  expired.  Numbers  of  the  fugitive 
French  were  slain  by  the  German  peasants,  who,  through- 
out the  war,  took  a  bloody  but  just  vengeance  on  the  brigand 
invader.  The  military  science  displayed  by  Mercy  on  this 
occasion  was  rewarded  with  the  appointment  of  generalis- 
simo over  the  allied  imperial,  Bavarian,  and  Lothringian 
troops.     During  his  stay  in   Swabia,    where  he  fruitlessly 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR  1059 

blockaded  Hohentviel,  the  fugitive  Weimar  troops  pillaged 
Burgundy.  Taupadel's  regiment  was  almost  cut  to  pieces 
by  the  enraged  peasantry.  In  the  summer  of  1614,  Turenne, 
who,  as  well  as  Guebriant,  had  served  his  apprenticeship  of 
arms  under  Bernard  von  Weimar,  crossed  the  Rhine  at  the 
head  of  a  fresh  French  army,  and  advanced  to  the  relief  of 
Freiburg  in  the  Breisgau,  at  that  time  closely  besieged  by 
Mercy.  Freiburg,  nevertheless,  fell,  uncontested  by  Tu- 
renne, who  awaited  the  arrival  of  a  second  French  army 
under  the  Due  d'Enghien,  afterward  known  as  the  great 
Conde\  A  dreadful  battle  was  fought  near  Freiburg,  in 
which  Conde,  who  arrived  too  late  to  turn  the  fate  of  the 
day,  was  driven  off  the  field,  and  Mercy,  too  much  enfeebled 
by  his  victory  to  make  head  against  the  superior  forces  of 
the  enemy,  evacuated  Swabia,  where  provisions  were  no 
longer  to  be  procured,  and  retreated  on  the  Maine.  John 
von  Werth  took  Mannheim  and  Hcechst  by  surprise.  The 
whole  of  the  Bergstrasse  was  garrisoned  by  Bavarians.  The 
French  fixed  their  headquarters  on  the  Upper  Rhine  and 
seized  Philippsburg.  Nothing  of  importance  occurred  on  the 
Lower  Rhine. 

Several  skirmishes  took  place  with  various  success  on 
both  sides  in  the  opening  of  the  campaign  of  1645.  Mercy 
was  struck  dead  by  a  cannon-ball,  August  3,  and  Geleen 
was  taken  prisoner  in  the  battle  of  Allerheim  in  the  Ries, 
which  was  gained  and  lost  by  both  sides,  Enghien,  after 
routing  the  Bavarians,  being  himself  driven  off  the  field  by 
John  von  Werth,  who  arrived  at  the  termination  of  the  con- 
flict. The  defection  of  the  elector  of  Saxony  from  the  im- 
perial cause  was  now  imitated  by  Maximilian  of  Bavaria, 
who  also  sought  to  promote  his  own  interest  by  a  renewal  of 
amicable  relations  with  France.  Geleen  was,  consequently, 
exchanged  for  Grammont,  who  had  been  taken  prisoner  at 
Allerheim;  the  command  of  the  Bavarian  forces  was,  how- 
ever, bestowed  upon  him  in  the  place  of  the  gallant  John 
von  Werth,  whose  principles  were  too  favorable  to  the  em- 
peror.    Enghien  and  Turenne  withdrew.      Peace  was  con- 


1060  THE    HISTORY   OF    GERMANY 

eluded  at  Ulm  between  Bavaria  and  France  in  November, 
1646.  The  defection  of  Bavaria  was  deeply  felt  by  the  em- 
peror. Geleen  threw  up  his  command  in  disgust,  and  John 
von  Werth,  who  had  simply  regarded  the  Bavarians  as 
troops  of  the  empire,  was  released  from  his  oath  of  alle- 
giance to  Maximilian,  and  attempted  to  desert  with  his 
entire  army  to  the  emperor.  His  project,  however,  failed; 
he  was  abandoned  to  a  man  by  the  Bavarian  troops,  and, 
with  Spork  and  some  other  officers,  narrowly  escaped  Wal- 
lenstein's  fate.  A  price  of  ten  thousand  dollars  was  placed 
upon  his  head,  and  his  possessions  in  Bavaria,  on  the  Rhine 
and  in  the  Netherlands  were,  at  Maximilian's  command, 
destroyed  by  fire. 

Wrangel,  meanwhile,  invaded  Upper  Swabia  in  the  depth 
of  winter,  plundered  Eavensburg  and  Leutkirch,  overcame 
the  desperate  resistance  of  the  peasantry  near  Kempten  and 
Isny,  and,  after  laying  a  hundred  villages  in  ashes,  returned, 
in  the  spring  of  1647,  to  Franconia,  where  he  took  Schwein- 
furt.  Turenne,  in  the  meantime,  laid  the  country  around 
Darmstadt  waste.  Paderborn,  so  often  the  bone  of  conten- 
tion during  this  war,  and  which  had  been  taken  by  the 
Landgravine  of  Hesse  in  1645,  was  recaptured  by  Melander 
von  flolzappel,  who  had  long  quitted  the  service  of  the  Land- 
gravine, and,  although  a  Protestant,  was  now  appointed 
generalissimo  of  the  imperial  troops;  such  vicissitudes  were 
there  in  a  war  which  had  originally  been  a  religious  one! 
Gallas  was  dead.  Piccolomini,  now  Duke  d'Amalfi,  again 
displayed  great  activity  in  the  Netherlands  and  even  invaded 
France.  The  great  imperial  leaders  had  disappeared  one  by 
one,  and  had  been  succeeded  by  Montecuculi,  who  was  now 
recalled  from  Silesia,  where  he  had  greatly  harassed  the  little 
Swedish  garrisons,  to  Melander's  aid. 

Turenne,  covered  to  the  rear  by  the  Bavarians  under 
Gronsfeld,  hastened  to  the  Netherlands  in  order  to  check  the 
progress  of  Piccolomini.  The  German  cavalry,  the  Weimar 
veterans,  however,  refused  to  follow  the  infantry  across  the 
French  frontier,  and,  on  the  21st  of  June,  1647,  turned  back 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR  1061 

from  Saarbruck,  and,  recrossing  the  Rhine,  advanced  upon 
Swabia.  Turenne  vainly  sought  to  restrain  them  by  force. 
Headed  by  William  Hempel,  a  student  from  Jena,  they 
fought  their  way  back  to  their  native  country,  and  two 
thousand  of  their  number  joined  Kcenigsmark  in  West- 
phalia. 

Eger  falling  into  the  hands  of  Wrangel,  who,  in  July, 
1647,  again  invaded  the  hereditary  provinces,  the  emperor, 
accompanied  by  Melander  and  John  von  Werth,  took  the 
field  in  person  at  the  head  of  the  whole  of  his  forces.  Both 
sides,  nevertheless,  contented  themselves  with  petty  skir- 
mishes, and,  although  neither  army  was  considerable  in 
number,  the  wasted  country  was  unable  to  furnish  them 
with  supplies.  In  September,  Maximilian  of  Bavaria  re- 
newed his  alliance  with  Austria.  Wrangel,  compelled  to 
retreat  before  the  united  forces  of  Melander  and  Gronsfeld, 
threw  himself  into  Hesse,  where  he  fixed  his  winter  quar- 
ters, in  order  to  punish  the  Landgravine  for  her  French 
policy.  Turenne  re-entered  Germany,  and,  uniting  with 
Wrangel,  again  invaded  Swabia.  Goeppingen,  Heidenheim, 
Gmund,  Ehingen,  were  pillaged;  Wiesensteig  was  burned. 
Melander  and  Gronsfeld  were  defeated  at  Zusmarshausen 
on  the  Bavarian  frontier,  May  17,  1648.  Melander  was 
killed.  The  victors  spread,  robbing  and  murdering,  over 
Bavaria,  and  Kcenigsmark  was  sent  to  invade  Bohemia. — 
In  this  extremity,  the  emperor  recalled  Piccolomini  and  re- 
instated him  in  the  command  of  his  universally  defeated 
troops,  while  Maximilian  had  once  more  recourse  to  Enke- 
fort,  who  had  again  planted  the  imperial  standard  in  Upper 
Swabia,  and  John  von  Werth  retook  the  command  of  the 
imperial  cavalry.  Still  one  disaster  followed  another  in 
rapid  succession.  Lamboy,  who  had  been  left  in  Hesse  by 
Melander,  was  defeated  by  Geis  near  Grevenburg,  and 
George  of  Darmstadt  was  finally  compelled  to  make  a 
formal  cession  of  Marburg  to  the  Landgravine.  The  arch- 
duke was  also  defeated  by  d'Enghien  near  Lens  in  the  Neth- 
erlands, August,   1648.     Kcenigsmark  had,  meanwhile,  ap- 


1062  THE    HISTORY    OF    GERMANY 

peared  unexpectedly  before  Prague  and  taken  the  Neustadt, 
where  he  made  an  immense  booty,  by  treachery  and  surprise. l 
The  Altstadt  was  gallantly  defended  by  Rudolph  Colloredo. 
The  Pfalzgraf,  Charles  Gustavus,  the  newly-appointed  gen- 
eralissimo of  the  Swedish  forces,  followed  with  reinforce- 
ments, was  joyfully  welcomed  in  Leipzig,  and  marched 
rapidly  upon   Prague  to  the  conquest  of  the  Altstadt. 

Peace  was,  at  this  conjuncture,  proclaimed  throughout 
the  empire  to  all  the  armies,  to  all  the  besieged  cities,  to 
the  trembling  princes,  to  the  wailing  people.  The  wild  sol- 
diery were  roused  to  fury  at  the  news.  At  Feuchtwangen, 
Wrangel  dashed  his  cocked  hat  to  the  ground  and  gave  or- 
ders to  let  loose  all  the  furies  of  war  during  the  retreat.  The 
beautiful  city  of  Liegnitz  in  Silesia  was  wantonly  set  on  fire 
by  one  of  his  men.  The  neighboring  city  of  Jauer  was  simi- 
larly treated  by  the  imperial  troops,  who,  shortly  before  the 
peace,  had  attacked  the  Swedes  in  that  place.  Turenne,  the 
idol  of  France,  acted  in  the  same  manner.  Neresheim  was 
sacked,  and  Weil  was  laid  in  ashes  by  his  soldiery.  This 
robber- band  at  length  disappeared  behind  the  Vosges  in 
1649.  —Had  the  disputes  between  the  Koyalists  and  Cardi- 
nalists  in  France  been  turned  to  advantage,  a  peace  more 
favorable  for  Germany  might  have  been  concluded,  but  no 
one,  with  the  exception  of  the  indefatigable  Charles  of  Lor- 
raine, appeared  conscious  of  the  fact.  He  joined  the  French 
princes,  carried  on  the  war  at  his  own  cost,  and,  in  1649,  de- 
feated Mazarin's  troops  at  Cambray. 

Plenipotentiaries  from  the  belligerent  powers  had,  since 
1644,  been  assembled  at  Osnabruck  and  Munster  in  West- 
phalia, for  the  purpose  of  concluding  peace.  The  hatred 
subsisting  between  the  different  parties  in  Germany  had 
insensibly  diminished,  and  each  now  merely  aimed  at  sav- 

1  The  valuable  collection  of  paintings  of  the  Emperor  Rudolph  II.,  among 
others  some  fine  Correggios,  were  carried  away.  The  youthful  queen,  Christina, 
possessed  little  taste  for  the  fine  arts,  and  had  the  finest  heads  cut  out  of  the 
pictures  and  pasted  upon  tapestry.  The  rest  of  this  invaluable  collection,  250 
pictures,  were  purchased  at  a  later  period  for  the  Orleans  gallery  at  Paris. 
The  most  valuable  part  of  the  booty  was  the  celebrated  Bible  of  Ulphilas. 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR  1063 

ing  the  little  remaining  in  its  possession.  Misery  and  suffer- 
ing had  cooled  the  religious  zeal  of  the  people,  license  that 
of  the  troops,  and  diplomacy  that  of  the  princes.  The  thirst 
for  blood  had  been  satiated,  and  passion,  worn  out  by  ex- 
cess, slumbered.  Germany  had  long  sighed  for  the  ter- 
mination of  a  struggle  solely  carried  on  within  her  bosom 
by  the  stranger.  The  Swedes  and  French  had,  however, 
triumphed,  and  were  now  in  a  position  to  dictate  terms  of 
peace  favorable  for  themselves,  and  a  long  period  elapsed 
before  the  jealous  pretensions  of  all  the  parties  interested  in 
the  conclusion  of  peace  were  satisfied.  The  procrastination 
of  the  emperor,  who  allowed  three-quarters  of  a  year  to 
elapse  before  giving  his  assent  to  the  treaty  of  peace,  the 
tardiness  of  the  French  and  Swedish  ambassadors  in  appear- 
ing at  the  congress,  the  disputes  between  the  members  about 
titles,  right  of  precedence,  etc.,  carried  on  for  months  and 
years,  are  to  be  ascribed  not  so  much  to  the  pedantry  of  the 
age,  to  Spanish  punctilio  and  to  German  tedium,  as  to  the 
policy  of  the  belligerent  powers,  who,  whenever  they  ex- 
pected a  fresh  result  from  the  manoeuvres  of  their  generals, 
often  made  use  of  these  means  for  the  sole  purpose  of  pro- 
longing the  negotiations. 

The  fate  of  our  great  fatherland,  the  prospects  of  the  im- 
mense empire  over  which  Charlemagne  and  Barbarossa  bad 
reigned,  lay  in  the  hands  of  Avaux,  the  shameless  French 
ambassador,  ..who  cited  the  non-occupation  of  the  left  bank 
of  the  Rhine  by  France  as  an  extraordinary  instance  of  gen- 
erosity, and  of  Salvius,  the  Swedish  envoy,  who,  ever  dread- 
ing to  be  outwitted  by  his  principal  antagonist,  Avaux,  vied 
with  him  in  impudence.  At  the  side  of  the  former  stood 
Servien,  at  that  of  the  latter  John  Oxenstierna,  the  son  of 
the  great  chancellor.  Trautmannsdorf,  the  imperial  envoy, 
a  tall,  ugly,  but  grave  and  dignified  man,  alone  offered  to 
them  a  long  and  steady  resistance,  and  compelled  them  to 
relinquish  their  grossest  demands.  By  him  stood  the  wily 
Volmar  of  Wurtemberg,  a  recanted  Catholic.  The  Dutch 
ambassador,  Paw,  vigilantly  watched  over  the  interests  of 


1064  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

his  country,  in  which  he  was  imitated  by  the  rest  of  the  en« 
voys,  who,  indifferent  to  the  weal  of  Germany  as  a  whole, 
were  solely  occupied  in  preserving  or  gaining  small  portions 
of  territory  from  the  great  booty.  Barnbuhler  of  Wurtem- 
berg,  whose  spirit  and  perseverance  remedied  his  want  of 
power,  and  the  celebrated  natural  philosopher,  Otto  von 
Guerike,  the  inventor  of  the  air-pump,  burgomaster  of 
ruined  Magdeburg,  might  also  be  perceived  in  the  back- 
ground of  the  assembly,  which  had  met  to  deliberate  over 
the  state  of  the  empire  under  the  presidency  of  foreigners 
and  brigands. 

The  misery  caused  by  the  war  was,  if  possible,  surpassed 
by  the  shame  brought  upon  the  country  by  this  treaty  of 
peace.  In  the  same  province  where  Armin  had  once  routed 
the  legions  of  Rome,  Germany  bent  servilely  beneath  a  for- 
eign yoke.  At  Munster,  Spain  concluded  peace  with  Hol- 
land. The  independence  of  Holland  and  her  separation  from 
the  empire  were  recognized,  and  Germany  was  deprived  of 
her  finest  provinces  and  of  the  free  navigation  of  the  Rhine; 
a  fatal  stroke  to  the  prosperity  of  all  the  Rhenish  cities.  The 
independence  of  Switzerland  was  also  solemnly  guaranteed. 
Peace  was  concluded  between  France  and  the  empire.  France 
was  confirmed  in  the  possession  of  Metz,  Toul,  Verdun,  and 
the  whole  of  Alsace,  with  the  exception  of  Strasburg,  of  the 
imperial  cities  and  of  the  lands  of  the  nobility  of  the  empire 
situated  in  that  province,  in  consideration  of  which,  Breisach 
and  the  fortress  of  Philippsburg,  the  keys  to  Upper  Ger- 
many, were  ceded  to  her,  by  which  means  Germany  was  de- 
prived of  one  of  her  finest  frontier  provinces  and  left  open 
to  the  French  invader,  against  whom  the  petty  princes  of 
Southern  Germany  being,  consequently,  unprotected,  they 
fell,  in  course  of  time,  under  the  influence  of  their  powerful 
neighbor. — At  Osnabruck,  peace  was  concluded  with  Swe- 
den, which  was  indemnified  for  the  expenses  of  the  war  by 
the  payment  of  five  million  dollars  and  by  the  cession  of  the 
bishoprics  of  Bremen  and  Verdun,  the  objects  of  Danish 
jealousy,  ot  the  city  of  Wismar,  the  island  ol  Rugen,  Stral- 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR  1065 

sund,  consequently,  of  all  the  important  posts  on  the  Baltic 
and  the  Northern  Ocean. 

One  portion  after  another  of  the  holy  German  empire 
was  thus  ceded  to  her  foes.  The  remaining  provinces  still 
retained  their  ancient  form,  but  hung  too  loosely  together 
to  withstand  another  storm.  The  ancient  empire  existed 
merely  in  name;  the  more  powerful  princes  virtually  pos- 
sessed the  power  and  rendered  themselves  completely  inde- 
pendent, and  the  supremacy  of  the  emperor,  and  with  it  the 
unity  of  the  body  of  the  state,  sank  to  a  mere  shadow.  Each 
member  of  the  empire  exercised  the  right  of  making  war,  of 
concluding  peace,  and  of  making  treaties  with  every  Euro- 
pean power,  the  emperor  alone  excluded.  Each  of  the  princes 
possessed  almost  unlimited  authority  over  his  subjects,  while 
the  emperor  solely  retained  some  inconsiderable  prerogatives 
or  reservations.  The  petty  princes,  the  counts,  knights,  and 
cities,  however,  still  supported  the  emperor,  who,  in  return, 
guarded  them  against  the  encroachments  of  the  great  princes. 
The  petty  members  of  the  empire  in  Western  Germany  would, 
nevertheless,  have  preferred  throwing  themselves  into  the 
arms  of  France. 

Every  religious  sect  was  placed  on  an  equal  footing,  their 
power  during  the  long  war  having  been  found  equal,  and 
their  mutual  antipathy  having  gradually  become  more  mod- 
erate. The  imperial  chamber  was  composed  of  equal  num- 
bers of  Catholics  and  Protestants,  and,  in  order  to  equalize 
the  power  of  the  electoral  princes,  the  .Rhenish  Pfalz,  together 
with  the  electoral  office,  was  again  restored  to  its  lawful  pos- 
sessor. Bavaria,  nevertheless,  retained  both  the  electoral 
dignity  and  the  Upper  Pfalz,  notwithstanding  the  protest 
made  by  Charles  Louis,  the  son  of  the  ex- king  of  Bohemia, 
against  this  usurpation.  All  church  property,  seized  or  secu- 
larized by  the  Protestants,  remained  in  their  hands,  or  was, 
by  the  favor  of  the  princes,  divided  among  them.  The  em- 
peror and  the  Catholic  princes  yielded,  partly  from  inability 
to  refuse  their  assent,  and  partly  because  they  began  to  per- 
ceive the  great  advantage  gained  thereby  by  the  temporal 

Germany,     Vol.  III. — 7 


1066  THE   HISTORY   OF    GERMANY 

princes;  nor  was  it  long  before  they  imitated  the  example. 
The  pope  naturally  made  a  violent  protest  against  the  secu- 
larization of  church  property.  Innocent  X.  published  a  bull 
against  the  peace  of  Westphalia.  The  religious  zeal  of  the 
Catholics  had  also  cooled,  notwithstanding  the  admonitions 
of  the  Jesuits;  the  princes,  consequently,  were  solely  gov- 
erned by  political  ideas,  which  proved  as  detrimental  to  the 
papal  cause  after  as  religious  enthusiasm  had  been  during 
the  Reformation.  The  authority  of  the  pope,  like  that  of 
the  emperor,  had  faded  to  a  shadow. 

All  secularized  property  reclaimed  by  the  Catholics  since 
the  Normal  year,  1624,  consequently  since  the  publication  of 
the  edict  of  restitution,  was  restored  to  the  Protestants,  and 
all  Protestant  subjects  of  Catholic  princes  were  granted  the 
free  exercise  of  the  religion  professed  by  them  in  the  said 
year,  which,  happening  to  have  been  that  immediately  after 
the  battle  on  the  White  Mountain,  and  the  emperor  declar- 
ing that,  at  that  period,  his  Reformed  subjects  no  longer 
enjoyed  liberty  of  conscience,  the  protests  made  by  the  emi- 
grated Austrian  Protestants  remained  without  effect.  The 
Silesian  princes,  still  remaining  in  Liegnitz,  Brieg,  Wohlau, 
Oels,  Munsterberg,  and  the  city  of  Breslau,  were  allowed 
to  remain  Lutheran,  and  three  privileged  churches  were, 
moreover,  permitted  at  Glogau,  Jauer,  and  Schweidnitz. 
The  ancient  system  was  strictly  enforced  throughout  the 
rest  of  the  hereditary  provinces.  The  sole  favor  shown  to- 
ward the  Protestants  was  their  transportation  to  Transyl- 
vania, where  they  were  allowed  the  free  exercise  of  their 
religion.  The  Jesuits  were  invested  with  unlimited  author- 
ity in  that  portion  of  the  German  empire  which  remained 
Catholic  after  the  peace  of  Westphalia.  In  1652,  an  impe- 
rial edict  enforced  the  profession  of  Catholicism,  under  pain 
of  death,  by  every  individual  within  the  hereditary  provinces. 

The  disputes  between  the  Lutherans  and  the  Reformers 
were  also  brought  to  a  close,  and  the  senseless  law,  by  means 
of  which  the  faith  professed  by  the  prince  was  imposed  upon 
his  subjects,  was  repealed.     The  violence  with  which  the 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'   WAR  1067 

doctors  of  theology  defended  their  opinions,  nevertheless, 
remained  unabated. 

Germany  is  reckoned  by  some  to  have  lost  one-half,  by 
others,  two-thirds  of  her  entire  population  during  the  thirty 
years'  war.  In  Saxony,  nine  hundred  thousand  men  had 
fallen  within  two  years;  in  Bohemia,  the  number  of  inhabi- 
tants, at  the  demise  of  Ferdinand  II.,  before  the  last  deplor- 
able inroads  made  by  Banner  and  Torstenson,  had  sunk  to 
one-fourth.  Augsburg,  instead  of  eighty,  had  eighteen  thou- 
sand inhabitants.  Every  province,  every  town  throughout 
the  empire,  had  suffered  at  an  equal  ratio,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  Tyrol,  which  had  repulsed  the  enemy  from  her 
frontiers  and  had  enjoyed  the  deepest  peace  during  this 
period  of  horror.  The  country  was  completely  impover- 
ished. The  working  class  had  almost  totally  disappeared. 
The  manufactories  had  been  destroyed  by  fire,  industry  and 
commerce  had  passed  into  other  hands.  The  products  of 
Upper  Germany  were  far  inferior  to  those  of  Italy  and 
Switzerland,  those  of  Lower  Germany  to  those  of  Holland 
and  England.  Immense  provinces,  once  flourishing  and 
populous,  lay  entirely  waste  and  uninhabited,  and  were 
only  by  slow  degrees  repeopled  by  foreign  emigrants  or  by 
soldiery.  The  original  character  and  language  of  the  in- 
habitants were,  by  this  means,  completely  altered.  In 
Franconia,  which,  owing  to  her  central  position,  had  been 
traversed  by  every  party  during  the  war,  the  misery  and 
depopulation  had  reached  to  such  a  pitch  that  the  Franco- 
nian  Estates,  with  the  assent  of  the  ecclesiastical  princes, 
abolished,  in  1650,  the  celibacy  of  the  Catholic  clergy, 
and  permitted  each  man  to  marry  two  wives,  on  account  of 
the  numerical  superiority  of  the  women  over  the  men.  The 
last  remains  of  political  liberty  had,  during  the  war,  also 
been  snatched  from  the  people;  each  of  the  Estates  had  been 
deprived  of  the  whole  of  its  material  power.  The  nobility 
were  compelled  by  necessity  to  enter  the  service  of  the  princes, 
the  citizens  were  impoverished  and  powerless,  the  peasantry 
had  been  utterly  demoralized  by  military  rule  and  reduced 


1068  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

to  servitude.  The  provincial  Estates,  weakly  guarded  by 
the  crown  against  the  encroachments  of  the  petty  princes, 
were  completely  at  the  mercy  of  the  more  powerful  of  the 
petty  sovereigns  of  Germany,  and  had  universally  sunk  in 
importance.  Science  and  art  had  fled  from  Germany,  and 
pedantic  ignorance  had  replaced  the  deep  learning  of  her 
universities.  The  mother  tongue  had  become  adulterated 
by  an  incredible  variety  of  Spanish,  Italian,  and  French 
words,  and  the  use  of  foreign  words  with  German  termina- 
tions was  considered  the  highest  mark  of  elegance.  Various 
foreign  modes  of  dress  were  also  as  generally  adopted.  Ger- 
many had  lost  all  save  her  hopes  for  the  future. 


PART    XIX 

THE     INTERNAL    STATE     OF     GERMANY     DURING 

THE    REFORMATION 


CCXII.    The  Jesuits 

THE  Reformation  had,  in  its  results,  fallen  far  short  of 
the  anticipations  cherished  by  the  more  lofty-minded 
among  its  promoters.  The  church,  instead  of  being 
generally  and  thoroughly  reformed,  had  been  but  partially 
freed  in  the  north  from  her  external  shackles  and  remained 
internally  almost  as  deeply  as  ever  enslaved;  the  new  church 
was,  like  her  elder  sister,  a  prey  to  superstition  and  fanati- 
cism, and  modern  scholastic  controversy,  belief  in  witchcraft 
and  ghosts  and  in  involuntary  works  of  grace,  were,  with 
the  bloody  persecution  of  heretics,  the  wretched  results  of  a 
struggle  that,  for  two  hundred  years,  had  drenched  Europe 
in  blood. 


INTERNAL    STATE   DURING    REFORMATION        1069 

The  Reformation  had,  notwithstanding,  followed  its  natu- 
ral course.  Ideas,  when  novel,  are  necessarily  slow  and  diffi- 
cult in  their  realization,  and  many  are  the  transitions,  many 
the  transformations,  they  are  destined  to  undergo  as  time  and 
events  roll  on. 

The  deeper  and  more  lasting  the  reform  in  a  nation's  mode 
of  thought  and  action,  the  more  surely  will  it  raise  the  most 
obstinate  resistance,  the  more  surely  will  it  rouse  every  evil 
passion  latent  in  the  heart  of  man,  and,  according  to  an 
eternal  and  historical  law,  first  lead,  not  to  its  prefixed  aim, 
but  to  its  opposite,  to  demoralization  and  tyranny  instead  of 
to  civilization  and  liberty. 

The  south  of  Europe  remained  thoroughly  Catholic,  the 
north  became  completely  Lutheran.  Germany  was  both 
Catholic  and  Lutheran,  a  circumstance,  politically  speak- 
ing, greatly  to  her  prejudice,  but  far  from  unfavorable  to 
the  progress  of  religion  and  civilization.  The  continued  ex- 
istence of  the  ancient  church  served  a  moral  purpose,  her 
errors  offered  a  continual  warning  to  her  successor,  while 
what  was  good  in  her  gained  time  to  overcome  Protestant 
prejudice  and  to  regain  its  influence;  the  vicinity  of  the 
Catholics,  moreover,  rendered  the  Protestants  less  liable  to 
laxity  and  carelessness.  The  Catholic  church  still  preserved 
her  great  and  ancient  idea  of  one  universal  Christian  church, 
and,  with  justice,  refused  to  sink  the  religion  superior  to  all 
temporal  power  and  comprehending  all  the  nations  of  the 
earth  to  a  slavish  service  in  separate  and  petty  provincial 
churches.  She  preserved  the  idea  of  the  freedom  and  inde- 
pendence of  the  church,  and,  with  justice,  refused  to  envelop 
the  anointed  priests  of  the  Lord  of  lords  in  the  state-livery 
of  a  petty  prince;  and,  finally,  she  preserved  the  idea  of  a 
magnificent  soul-stirring  service  as  that  most  worthy  of  the 
Deity,  and,  with  justice,  blamed  the  banishment  of  all  that 
is  striking  and  beautiful  from  the  Protestant  form  of  wor- 
ship. The  Protestant  church,  on  the  other  hand,  possessed 
equal  advantages.  She  adopted  as  one  of  her  fundamental 
principles  the  non-exercise  of  temporal  power  by  a  minister 


1070  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

of  God,  and,  with  justice,  opposed  the  hierarchy.  She  re- 
quired morality  and  piety  in  her  priests,  and,  with  justice, 
condemned  the  debauchery  and  immorality  consequent  upon 
celibacy.  She  demanded  freedom  of  conscience  and  of  thought 
in  religious  as  well  as  all  other  matters,  reason  being  not  the 
least  of  the  talents  bestowed  by  God  upon  man  to  be  used  to 
his  honor  and  glory,  and  reason  being  the  only  safeguard 
against  the  errors  into  which  the  church  had  so  deeply  fallen ; 
and,  with  justice,  she  opposed  scholasticism,  by  which  reasou 
was  oppressed  and  nations  were  kept  in  dark  ignorance. 

The  defection  of  the  whole  of  Northern  Europe  dealt  a 
severe  blow  to  the  external  power  of  the  hierarchy,  but,  at 
the  same  time,  more  firmly  established  its  sway  in  the  South, 
where  the  Catholics  were  driven  by  necessity  to  coalesce  and 
to  take  extraordinary  measures.  The  Reformation  also  ex- 
ercised a  powerful  influence  upon  its  opponents.  The  pope, 
it  is  true,  did  not  relinquish  the  least  of  his  pretensions,'  but 
an  end  was  put  to  the  most  glaring  vices  of  the  church.  The 
justice  of  the  reproach  cast  upon  her  by  the  Reformers  was 
felt,  and  the  clergy  reformed  themselves,  or,  at  all  events, 
externally  practiced  the  most  rigid  morality.  License  was 
solely  difficult  to  check  among  the  lower  clergy,  men  of  more 
refined  and  elevated  minds  being,  generally  speaking,  in- 
clined for  reform,  and  leaving  behind  them  an  ignorant 
scum,  who  were,  nevertheless,  consecrated  for  the  priest- 
hood, principally  for  the  sake  of  giving  occupants  to  the 
livings.  Discipline  was  first  reintroduced  into  the  church 
by  the  Jesuits,  who  were,  however,  fully  conscious  of  the 
influence  of  rough  manners  and  speech,  nay,  even  of  that 
of  the  ridiculous  upon  the  people;  nor  did  the  fact  escape 
them  of  the  disadvantage  under  which  Lutheranism  labored, 

1  The  infamous  bull  ne  Coena  Domini,  which,  anterior  to  the  Reformation, 
condemned  all  those  disagreeing  with  Rome,  added  the  following  anathema, 
under  Urban  VIII.,  during  the  thirty  years'  war:  "Excommunicamus  et  anath- 
ematizamus  ex  parte  Dei  omnipotentis,  etc.  Quoscunque  Hussitas,  Wichle- 
fistas,  Lutheranos,  Zwinglianos,  Calvinistas,  Ugonottos,  etc.  Item  excommu- 
nicamus et  anathematizamus  omnes  ad  universale  futurum  concilium  appellantes. 
Item  excommuaicami  aematizamus  omnes  Pirataa,  cureariosetlatrunculoa 

maritimos."     Lutherans,  Calvinists,  and  pirates  were  thus  classed  together] 


INTERNAL    STATE   DURING    REFORMATION        1071 

owing  to  its  gloom  and  austerity.  By  a  bold  artifice  they 
brought  the  laugh  on  their  side  and  permitted  the  Capuchins' 
to  attract  their  audience  by  jocose  sermons,  Capucinades  or 
Salbadereien;  so  called  from  the  opening  words  of  their  dis- 
courses, "dixit  Salvator  noster. "  The  toys  with  which  the 
people,  "like  children  of  a  larger  growth,"  were  amused, 
served  a  similar  purpose;  the  spiritual  shops,  the  small  retail 
trade  in  pictures  of  Madonnas  and  saints,  in  consecrated  amu- 
lets possessing  the  power  of  guarding  the  purchaser  against 
every  ill;  the  consecration  of  houses,  tables,  beds,  kitchens, 
cellars,  and  stables,  and  the  abuse  of  religion  by  its  applica- 
tion in  the  most  ludicrous  or  the  most  unholy  matters.  This 
sacred  buffoonery  was  directed  in  the  cities  and  towns  by 
the  Jesuits,  in  the  country  by  the  Capuchins,  who  were  hence 
nicknamed  the  Jesuits'  poodles.  Every  other  monkish  order 
was  deemed  inferior  to  them  and  merely  vegetated  in  the 
rich  monasteries.  Not  only  the  old  Benedictines,  who, 
through  jealousy  of  the  Jesuits,  again  applied  themselves 
to  learning,  chiefly  to  the  study  of  history,  in  contradistinc- 
tion to  the  dogmatism  and  dialectics  of  their  opponents,  but 
also  the  strict  Carthusians,  who  had  completely  renounced 
the  world,  were  immeasurably  wealthy,  and  the  contrast  be- 
tween their  marble  palaces,  their  gold  and  diamonds,  and 
their  original  vow  of  external  poverty,  afforded  a  significant 
proof  of  the  unnatural  position  gained  by  the  church. 

Rome  ruled  over  the  church  by  means  of  the  Jesuits  and 
Capuchins.  The  council  of  Trent  attempted  the  partial  re- 
establishment  of  episcopal  power  in  order  to  check  the  local 
and  national  opposition  raised  against  Rome,  but  was  unsuc- 
cessful, owing  to  the  rapid  progress  of  the  Reformation.  The 
bishops,  consequently,  sank  to  their  former  state  of  subordi- 
nation, and  all  ecclesiastical  affairs  were  henceforward  solely 
controlled  by  the  pope  and  his  Jesuitical  propaganda,  who 
were,  nevertheless,  always  compelled  to  secure  the  assent  of 

1  So  named  in  153G,  owing  to  a  ridiculous  dispute  among  the  Franciscans, 
whether  their  holy  founder,  St.  Francesco  d'Assisi,  wore  a  pointed  capuchin  or 
not.     The  party  in  favor  of  the  latter  formed  themselves  into  a  distinct  oid«r. 


1072  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

the  princes  by  means  of  the  nuncios  accredited  to  the  great 
Catholic  courts;  the  bishops  were  simply  subalterns,  except 
when,  at  the  same  time,  sovereign  princes. 

The  church  required  expert  champions,  and  therefore  did 
not  fail  to  oppose  similar  weapons  to  the  mass  of  learning 
among  the  Protestants.  The  necessity  of  borrowing  the 
weapons  of  her  opponents  and  of  intrusting  the  defence  of 
her  system,  merely  founded  on  unreasoning  credulity,  to 
reason,  was,  however,  of  itself  productive  of  a  great  internal 
change.  The  Catholicism  of  the  Jesuits,  although  externally 
unaltered,  totally  differed  from  that  of  the  Middle  Ages. 
Even  in  its  exaggerations  it  had  until  now  been  nature,  an 
overdrawn  effort,  an  abuse  of  nature,  but  now  it  became  art, 
a  creation  of  Jesuitry.  The  people  had  formerly  been  left  to 
their  simplicity,  of  which  it  was  perhaps  excusable  to  take 
advantage,  but  now  they  had  attained  knowledge,  and  the 
Jesuits  made  use  of  art  for  the  purpose  of  restoring  igno- 
rance. This  formed  the  essential  difference  between  former 
and  modern  times. 

The  Society  of  Jesus  was  founded  by  Ignatius  Loyola,  an 
enthusiastic  Spaniard,  for  penitents,  who,  in  those  heretical 
times,  ere  long  made  it  their  business  to  confirm  the  faith  of 
the  wavering,  and,  consequently,  became  the  tools  of  Rome. 
Benedict  XIV.  named  them  St.  Peter's  Janissaries.  Their 
object  was  the  restoration  of  unlimited  hierarchical  power, 
and  they  despised  no  means,  however  base,  that  might  con- 
duce to  success,  according  to  their  celebrated  maxim,  "The 
end  justifies  the  means."  The  society  was  intended  to  form 
an  aristocracy  of  talent,  whose  office  it  was  to  guard  the 
avenues  of  knowledge  against  the  rest  of  mankind;  and,  as 
a  precaution  against  individual  treachery,  no  member  was 
permitted  to  quit  the  order  except  to  take  the  vows  of  a 
Carthusian,  by  which  he  bound  himself  to  silence  and  soli- 
tude for  the  rest  of  his  days.  The  heads  of  the  society 
had  unlimited  power  to  remove,  punish,  and  assassinate  the 
members.  The  first  vow  taken  by  the  initiated  was  that  of 
unconditional  obedience.    A  system  of  secret  espionage  per- 


INTERNAL    STATE   DURING    REFORMATION        2078 

vaded  the  whole  society ;  suspicion  was  condemnation ;  and 
the  victim  was  sentenced  to  die  in  seclusion  of  starvation,  as 
is  expressly  directed  by  Suarez,  the  great  Jesuitical  casuist. 
The  members  were  divided  into  classes,  the  highest  of  which, 
the  professors,  elected  the  head  or  general  of  the  whole  order, 
who  resided  at  Rome.  Every  province  of  the  order  was  un- 
der the  superintendence  of  a  pater  provincialis.  The  higher 
grades  were  kept  strictly  secret  from  the  lower  classes,  who 
were  merely  the  blind  tools  of  the  former.  The  pope  con- 
ferred the  most  extensive  privileges  upon  the  order,  which 
was  empowered  to  interfere  everywhere  with  the  clergy  and 
with  all  other  orders. — And,  in  order  to  renew  the  times  of 
tlie  first  apostles,  the  Jesuits  sent  out  missionaries,  who  visited 
the  most  distant  parts  of  the  globe,  for  the  purpose  of  con- 
verting the  heathen  and — of  taking  possession  of  the  New 
World.  They  brought  countless  treasure  into  Europe,  by 
means  of  which  they  placed  themselves  on  a  firm  footing 
and  acquired  immense  influence  at  a  period  when  money 
was  power. 

The  most  celebrated  of  these  missionaries  was  St.  Xavier, 
who  met  with  a  martyr's  death  in  India.  Numbers  of  the 
Jesuits  shared  the  same  fate;  many,  in  particular  Germans, 
were  distinguished  for  piety  and  learning  and  by  their  ex- 
ploration of  unknown  countries.  Among  the  European 
Jesuits  were  many  fervent  spirits  actuated  by  the  purest 
zeal;  many  simple  and  poetical  minds  unstained  by  hypoc- 
risy, for  instance,  Balde;  many  deeply  learned  men,  sincere 
lovers  of  truth.  It  would  be  unjust  to  pass  a  sweeping  con- 
demnation upon  all  the  Jesuits.  But  the  ruling  spirit  and 
the  political  effect  of  the  order  were  immoral.  The  manner 
in  which  they  denied  the  truths  brought  to  light  during  the 
Reformation,  sought  to  veil  them  by  bringing  to  view  the 
weaknesses  and  errors  of  Protestantism,  or  to  suppress  them 
by  force,  cannot  be  justified.  The  sophistry  with  which  they 
still  defended  undeniable  and  long-sensible  abuses  was  re- 
volting to  reason.  The  means  by  which  they  bent  the  power- 
ful and  wealthy  to  their  purposes  were  often  the  most  unholy. 


1074  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

One  of  the  principal  objects  of  the  Jesuits  was  to  replace 
the  sale  of  dispensations,  which  had  fallen  into  bad  repute 
since  the  Reformation,  and  which  was,  moreover,  almost  in- 
dispensable to  the  church.  This  was  done  by  means  of  the 
lax  morality  of  the  confessional.  The  more  luxurious  court 
life  became,  the  more  easily  did  the  Jesuits  forgive  the  sins 
committed  by  the  aristocracy;  in  order  to  pacify  the  new 
conscientious  scruples  awakened  by  the  Eeformation,  they 
became  the  advocates  instead  of  the  judges  of  sins,  from 
every  description  of  which  they,  by  their  casuistry,  excul- 
pated the  offender.  The  Spanish  Jesuits  went  furthest. 
The  book  of  Escobar,  the  confessor's  manual,  passed  through 
thirty-six  editions,  which  were  printed  under  the  direction  of 
the  society  and  of  the  church.  The  church  closed  her  eyes 
to  any  measures  taken  by  the  confessors,  provided  they  made 
proselytes  and  gathered  the  stray  sheep  into  the  fold. 

According  to  their  casuistical  system,  all  sins  were  excul- 
pated: First,  By  the  doctrine  of  probabilismus,  that  is,  by 
the  mildest  of  all  possible  interpretations.  A  says,  "Such  a 
sin  is  too  horrible  to  be  forgiven."  B  says,  "Certainly;  still 
it  might  thus  be  exculpated,"  etc.,  etc.  Upon  this  C  says, 
"According  to  A's  opinion  it  cannot  be  forgiven;  but  it  can 
be  according  to  B's;  and  as  an  authority  is  all  that  is  requi- 
site, and  the  mildest  point  of  view  is  admissible,  i  agree  with 
B."  Secondly,  By  the  directio  intentionis,  that  is,  by  the 
thoughts  being  occupied  during  the  performance  of  a  bad 
action  with  an  innocent  object.  Thus,  for  instance,  one 
might  bribe  another  or  accept  of  a  bribe  and,  at  the  same 
time,  be  merely  thinking  of  civility  or  gratitude.  Thirdly, 
By  the  reservatio  mentalis.  It  was  allowable  to  take  a  false 
oath  by  voluntarily  adding  a  mental  reservation,  as,  for 
instance,  a  man  might  swear  he  had  no  money,  although 
he  had  some,  provided  he  mentally  added  "none  to  lend," 
etc.  One  might  take  an  oath  thus,  "I  swear  (that  I  say 
here,  although  it  is  untrue)  that  I,"  etc.,  or,  "I  swear  that 
I  did  not  do  that  (a  hundred  years  ago  or  a  hundred  miles 
hence),"  or,  "I  swear  to  do  so  (if  I  cannot  think  of  some- 


INTERNAL   STATE   DURING    REFORMATION        1076 

thing  else). "  Fourthly,  By  amphibologia,  or  equivocation; 
for  instance,  one  can  deny  anything  touching  the  French  by 
thinking  of  the  word  "gallus"  as  implying  a  cock  instead  of 
a  Gaul.  Fifthly,  By  the  intentio  bona,  which  was  the  prin- 
cipal thing.  Strictly  speaking,  the  only  virtue  required  in  a 
Jesuit  was  the  promotion  of  the  intentions  of  his  order;  who- 
ever did  this,  merited  eternal  bliss,  which  was  ever  the  case. 
The  sins  of  the  wealthy  and  powerful,  whom  it  was  to  the 
interest  of  the  order  to  treat  with  lenity,  were  excused  on 
the  ground  of  their  having  no  intentio  mala,  that  is,  that  the 
sin  had  not  been  committed  for  the  sake  of  sinuing.  Thus, 
for  instance,  adultery  was  allowable  in  princes  and  nobles, 
because  the  marriage  vow  had  been  broken,  not  for  the  sake 
of  committing  adultery,  but  for  the  sake  of  another  woman. 
Sixthly,  and  lastly,  By  pia  opera,  by  good  works;  whoever 
honored  the  Jesuits,  built  colleges  for  them,  gave  them 
money,  etc.,  whoever,  in  general,  did  good  service  to  the 
Catholic  church,  diligently  observed  her  ceremonies,  pur- 
chased a  dispensation,  etc.,  was  completely  free  from  guilt. 
Means  such  as  these  easily  gained  over  the  wealthy  and 
the  powerful.  The  Jesuits  displayed  the  greatest  activity  at 
court,  their  maxim  being  to  influence  the  flock  through  its 
leaders.  They  long  governed  all  the  Catholic  courts  of  Eu- 
rope, sometimes  as  confessors  or  tutors  to  the  sovereign, 
sometimes  as  councillors  and  negotiators,  the  most  talented 
men  of  their  order  especially  devoting  themselves  to  political 
matters;  but  their  principal  profession  was  that  of  a  pro- 
curer; the  secrets  of  the  confessional  rendered  them  masters 
of  the  weaknesses  of  the  princes  and  princesses,  whom  they 
doubly  flattered,  by  affording  them  opportunities  to  satisfy 
their  inclinations,  and,  at  the  same  time,  giving  them  full 
absolution.  Like  the  Lutheran  court  chaplains,  they  ever 
found  means  to  secure  the  eternal  salvation  of  the  sovereign, 
whatever  might  have  been  his  crimes.  They  even  succeeded 
in  creeping  into  Protestant  courts  for  the  purpose  of  convert- 
ing the  prince  or  of  corrupting  his  councillors.  It  was  in 
this  manner  they  converted  Queen  Christina  of  Sweden,  the 


1076  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

daughter  of  the  great  Gustavus  Adolphus.  The  most  im- 
portant projects  of  the  Protestants  have  been  frustrated  by 
the  secret  intrigues  of  Jesuitical  emissaries  at  the  courts  of 
the  Protestant  princes.  The  Jesuits  also  applied  themselves 
to  the  study  of  medicine,  by  which  means  they  got  the  life  of 
the  sovereign,  in  whose  service  they  were,  into  their  power, 
and  many  of  the  poisonings  which  took  place  at  that  time 
may  be  placed  to  their  charge,  no  less  than  many  of  the  as- 
sassinations, by  which  they  removed  the  leaders  of  the  op- 
posite party.  In  1614,  the  general  of  the  order,  Aquaviva, 
prohibited  the  public  defence  of  regicide  by  the  Jesuits, 
probably  from  fear  of  giving  offence  to  their  royal  patrons. 
In  order  to  work  with  greater  security,  they  had  secret  mem- 
bers among  the  laity;  princes  were  even  enrolled  in  their 
ranks.    These  members  were  termed  the  short-robed  Jesuits. 

Education  was  almost  entirely  controlled  by  the  Jesuits, 
who,  by  this  means,  secured  the  rising  generation  and  me- 
thodically implanted  in  the  people  the  spirit  requisite  for 
their  purposes.  The  most  fitting  members  of  the  order  were 
placed  in  their  schools  or  colleges.  Every  science  was  turned 
to  suit  their  purposes.  Everything  that  might  prove  preju- 
dicial to  themselves  was  carefully  avoided  in  the  schools  and 
in  their  writings,  and  all  Protestant  books  were  strictly  pro- 
hibited. Although  there  were  many  deeply  learned  and 
shrewd-minded  men  among  the  Jesuits,  the  want  of  truth 
in  their  discourses  rendered  their  schools  far  inferior  to  those 
of  the  Protestants;  nor  could  the  knowledge  they  acquired 
ever  benefit  the  people,  owing  to  their  almost  constant  use  of 
the  Latin  tongue,  which  was  at  first  natural,  the  first  Jesuits 
having  been  Spaniards  or  Italians,  but  which  was  afterward 
purposely  persevered  in  with  a  view  of  preventing  the  stu- 
dents from  studying  German  and,  more  particularly,  Prot- 
estant works. 

The  inclination  of  the  Jesuits  to  place  themselves  as  an 
intermediate  class  between  the  priests  and  the  laity,  and,  by 
this  means,  to  govern  both,  is  clearly  discernible  in  their  new 
forms.     They  avoided  the  old  terms  of  "monastery,  monks," 


INTERNAL    STATE   DURING    REFORMATION        1077 

etc.,  and  termed  themselves  a  "society";  their  houses,  "col- 
leges and  residences."  In  South  America,  in  the  province 
of  Paraguay,  they  even  usurped  sovereign  rule,  but  had  the 
prudence  to  veil  their  model- monarchy,  in  imitation  of  which 
they  one  day  hoped  to  rule  the  whole  world,  from  the  eyes  of 
the  curious. 

It  was  the  Jesuits  who  desecrated  the  spirit  of  the  vener- 
able mother- church  while  attempting  to  preserve  her  body, 
the  tottering  edifice  of  hierarchical  tyranny.  One  of  her 
heads  had  prophesied  concerning  them,  "As  lambs  have  we 
crept  in,  as  wolves  will  we  govern,  as  dogs  shall  we  be  driven 
out,  and  as  eagles  shall  we  return." 

The  most  celebrated  of  the  Jesuitical  dogmatists  of  Ger- 
many, during  the  thirty  years'  war,  were  Gretser,  self-named 
1 '  malleus  hseret  icorum, ' '  and  Tanner.  During  the  subsequent 
peace,  the  Bollandists  gained  great  celebrity  in  the  Nether- 
lands by  their  "acta  sanctorum,"  a  continuation,  principally 
by  Bolland,  Papebrochius,  etc.,  of  the  legends  of  the  saints, 
formerly  collected  by  the  industrious  Benedictines.  The  An- 
nals, published  by  Baronius,  up  to  1607,  in  opposition  to  the 
Magdeburg  Centuries  of  Flacius,  were  the  greatest  historical 
work  of  the  Catholic  church.  Leisentritt  Juliusburg,  of 
Vienna,  who  produced  a  Catholic  hymn-book  in  opposition 
to  that  of  Luther,  belonged  to  the  peaceful  Catholics. 

Although  Germans  served  the  society  of  Jesuits,  they 
never  gained  the  upper  hand  in  that  order,  the  German  char- 
acter being  antipathetical  to  its  institutions,  which  were 
brought  from  Spain  to  Germany  and  ever  remained  foreign 
to  the  soil.  The  first  opposition  raised  against  the  order 
in  the  Catholic  church  originated  from  a  German,  Jansen 
(1638),  in  the  university  of  Louvain,  in  the  Spanish  Neth- 
erlands. Jansen  demanded  sincerity  in  religious  feeling  in- 
stead of  Jesuitical  hypocrisy  and  external  works;  humility, 
piety,  and  fear  of  God,  instead  of  the  intolerable  priestly 
pride  of  the  Jesuits.  His  doctrine,  Jansenism,  spread  prin- 
cipally throughout  France,  replacing  all  that  had  been  lost 
by  the  suppression  of  the  Huguenots;  and,  at  the  very  time 


1078  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

that  France  was  sending  disease  and  incendiaries  into  Ger- 
many, did  German  genius  nobly  avenge  its  fatherland  by 
imparting  a  benefit  to  its  foe. 

CCX1II.   The  Lutheran  and  Reformed  Churches 

The  Reformers  were  as  disunited  as  the  Catholics  were 
the  contrary.  The  doctrine  of  the  Lutherans,  or  Protestants, 
stood  opposed  to  that  of  the  Calvinists,  the  Reformers  in  the 
stricter  sense,  and  these  two  great  sects  were  again  inter- 
nally divided.  The  political  distribution  of  the  Reformers 
also  affected  the  external  constitution  of  the  church,  each 
principality  or  republic  having   its  separate  church. 

The  bonds  of  the  universal  church  had  thus  been  torn 
asunder,  and  separate  provincial  churches  alone  existed. 
The  independence  and  liberty  of  the  church  were  by  this 
means  destroyed,  and,  instead  of  the  ancient  hierarchy, 
which  had  asserted  its  superiority  over  or  its  equality  with 
temporal  power,  there  was  merely  a  political  church  sub- 
servient to  the  temporal  government  of  each  province.  The 
whole  of  the  hierarchical  power  had  passed  into  the  hands  of 
the  princes.  The  prince  inherited  the  ecclesiastical  property, 
and,  at  the  same  time,  exercised  all  spiritual  power  aod  juris- 
diction. The  ministry  and  the  cure  of  souls  were  all  that  re- 
mained to  the  priest,  whose  nomination,  removal,  and  even 
the  doctrines  he  was  to  inculcate,  depended  upon  the  caprice 
of  the  prince.  The  curate  was  a  salaried  servant  of  the  state. 
A  number  of  parishes  stood  under  an  inspector,  superintend- 
ent, or  deacon,  in  imitation  of  the  Catholic  deaconries,  all  of 
whom  were  subordinate  to  a  consistory,  composed  of  spirit- 
ual and  temporal  members  and  forming  a  subdivision  of  the 
government.  It  was  only  in  countries  where  the  prince  and 
his  subjects  differed  in  religion  that  the  consistory  main- 
tained its  independence.  All  temporal  affairs,  matrimonial 
causes  alone  excepted,  were  beyond  its  jurisdiction. — The 
poor  country  clergy  were  also  generally  dependent  upon  the 
nobility,  who  held  the  right  of  patronage,  or  the  right  of 


INTERNAL    STATE   DURING    REFORMATION        1079 

nominating  one  of  the  candidates  for  the  ministry,  who  was 
examined  by  the  consistory,  to  his  village  church;  a  right 
simply  consequent  on  that  of  property,  the  village  belonging 
to  the  noble  in  the  same  manner  as  the  country  belonged  to 
the  prince.  The  poor  candidates,  consequently,  competed  for 
the  favor  of  the  nobility,  and,  as  the  depravity  of  the  courts 
gradually  spread  downward,  the  Protestant  clergy  were  ex- 
posed to  the  most  unworthy  treatment,  serving  as  buffoons 
to  their  patrons  or  as  convenient  husbands  for  their  cast-off 
mistresses. 

The  splendor  of  the  Catholic  church,  her  adoration  of 
saints  and  relics,  her  ceremonies  all  too  deeply  calculated  to 
impose  upon  the  senses,  had  led  the  Lutherans  and  the  Re- 
formers into  the  opposite  extreme  in  their  inartificial,  meagre, 
prosaic  service,  which  merely  consisted  of  listening  to  a  ser- 
mon between  bare  walls,  and  of  singing  in  chorus,  which 
generally  degenerated  to  a  screaming  sound  little  in  harmony 
with  the  notes  of  the  organ,  the  whole  congregation,  whether 
able  to  sing  or  not,  joining  in  chorus.  The  sermon,  the  word 
of  God,  was  the  main  point,  and,  until  abused  by  hypocrisy, 
modern  scholasticism,  and  oratory,  had  an  extraordinary 
influence  over  the  multitude.  The  Lutherans  retained  a 
greater  degree  of  solemnity  in  their  church  service  than  the 
Reformers. 

The  Reformed  churches  were  at  first  strictly  democratic. 
The  clergy  were  not  even  distinguished  by  their  attire  from 
the  rest  of  the  community;  nor  was  it  until  the  aristocracy 
gradually  rose  to  power,  as  in  Switzerland  and  Holland,  that 
the  Reformed  churches  also  assumed  an  aristocratic  appear- 
ance. In  strictness  of  morals  the  Reformed  maintained  her 
superiority  over  the  Lutheran  church.  At  the  present  day, 
as  in  the  sixteenth  century,  when  church  going  was  con- 
sidered in  Switzerland,  more  particularly  in  Zurich,  as  an 
indispensable  duty,  the  Sabbath  is  observed  at  Zurich  with 
a  strictness  unknown  elsewhere,  except  in  North  America, 
owing  to  a  similar  reason,  religion  and  morality  being  more 
rigidly  practiced  by  the  people  in  a  self-controlled  republic 


1080  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

than  they  ever  can  be  under  a  monarchy.  Berne  first  com- 
plained of  the  servility,  and  of  the  consequent  laxity  of  the 
morals,  of  the  clergy  dependent  upon  the  upper  classes. 

The  theological  uncertainty  displayed  in  the  composition 
of  the  Interim,  the  compliance  of  Melancthon,  and,  more 
particularly,  that  of  Agricola,  the  separation  of  the  strict 
Lutherans  from  the  Swiss,  and,  in  Holland,  that  of  the 
strict  Calvinists  from  the  Arminians,  have  already  been  al- 
luded to.  The  controversial  writings  of  these  sects  and  those 
of  the  Jesuits  henceforth  chiefly  occupied  the  theological 
press,  swelling  the  bombast  of  ancient  scholasticism,  and 
uniting  indescribable  coarseness  and  brutality  with  expres- 
sions of  the  most  envenomed  hate.  Pamphlets  from  every 
corner  of  Germany  disputed,  like  an  immense  flock  of  ravens 
over  a  carcass,  over  the  rotten  remains  of  the  church,  and 
the  scholastics  had  no  sooner  triumphed  over  the  anabaptisti- 
cal  dilettanti  than  they  fell  at  strife  among  themselves.  The 
first  and  most  important  point  was  to  replace  the  inexhausti- 
ble means  of  grace  possessed  by  the  ancient  church  with  some- 
thing offering  an  equal  guarantee  to  the  people,  whom  former 
habits  and  the  promulgation  of  fresh  doctrines  had  rendered 
anxious  for  the  salvation  of  their  souls.  The  text  of  the  Bible 
was  open  to  various  interpretations,  and  it  was  on  all  sides 
unanimously  resolved  that  the  cheap  dispensation  should  be 
replaced  by  a  justification  of  the  easiest  description.  The 
mode  by  which  this  justification  was  to  be  obtained,  how- 
ever, produced  a  furious  dispute.  Luther  and  Flacius,  who 
went  still  further,  justified  by  blind  faith  in  the  word  of  God, 
independent  of  all  good  works;  nay,  Flacius  even  condemned 
virtue  without  faith  and  justified  every  sinner  who  believed. 
Agricola  and  Osiander  admitted  the  eternal  grace  of  God  by 
which  man  was  justified  and  rendered,  like  Christ,  devoid  of 
sin.  Calvin  taught  the  doctrine  of  predestination,  according 
to  which  certain  individuals  were  from  their  birth  destined 
to  future  bliss.  On  no  side  was  means  for  salvation  want- 
ing. These  theological  controversies  being,  moreover,  with- 
out practical  influence  on  the  people  or  on  public  morals, 


INTERNAL   STATE   DURING    REFORMATION        1081 

agam  degenerated  to  mere  scholastic  cavils.  The  prepon- 
derance of  justifying  effect,  which,  independent  of  all  good 
works  and  of  morality,  was  by  some  ascribed  to  faith,  by 
others  to  grace,  might  have  endangered  public  morals,  had 
not  the  people,  with  their  sound  sense,  in  spite  of  the  absurdi- 
ties inculcated  by  the  theologians,  chiefly  comprehended  the 
Keformation  as  a  reform  in  their  moral  and  social  existence, 
and  had  recourse  to  that  blessed  gift,  the  German  Bible 
which  even  the  theology  of  the  schools  was  unable  to  pervert. 
Modern  Protestant  scholasticism  was  necessarily  opposed 
by  modern  mysticism.  Pious  and  high-minded  men  were 
naturally  driven  to  seek  for  salvation  elsewhere  than  in 
verbal  disputations.  The  gentle-minded  Schwenkfeld  had, 
even  in  Luther's  time,  taught  that  Christianity  consisted  not 
in  controversy,  but  in  purity  of  life  and  love  of  one's  neigh- 
bor. John  Arnd,  who,  toward  the  close  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  followed  in  Tauler's  steps  and  led  his  hearers  from 
controversy  to  devotion,  met  with  less  opposition  on  account 
of  his  not  being  the  founder  of  any  particular  system;  but 
Jacob  Bcehme,  the  shoemaker  of  Goerlitz,  who,  about  the 
same  time,  irradiated  Germany  with  his  ideas,  became  the 
object  of  the  bitter  hatred  and  persecution  of  the  Lutheran 
clergy.  His  "Eising  Morn"  broke  with  redoubled  effulgence 
through  the  mists  of  ignorance  and  arrogance.  When  speak- 
ing of  the  controversies  of  his  times,  he  says,  "After  the  in- 
ternal church,  which  he  solely  acknowledged,  the  Turkish 
appeared  to  him  the  most  reasonable,  as  it  had  only  one  god 
and  a  moral  code  without  dispensation;  the  next  best  was 
the  strong  church  (that  of  Eome),  with  which  something 
might  still  be  done;  but  the  most  corrupt  of  all  was  the 
church  of  disputants  (the  Lutheran). ' ' 

CCXIV.    The  Empire — The  Princes  and  the  Nobility 

The  emperor's  title  of  "augmenter  of  the  empire"  had 
become  a  mockery,  an  empty  sound.  The  Swiss  and  Dutch 
had  asserted  their  independence,  the  Netherlands  had  been 


1082  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

ceded  to  Spain,  part  of  Lorraine  and  Alsace  to  France,  part 
of  Lower  Saxony  to  Denmark,  Pomerania  to  Sweden.  In- 
ternally, the  empire  was  torn  and  hung  but  loosely  together, 
her  constitution  was  a  monstrum  reipublicas.  The  imperial 
diet  was  divided  into  three  colleges  or  benches,  those  of  the 
electors,  princes,  and  cities.  The  elector  of  Mayence,  as 
arch-chancellor  of  the  empire,  held  the  presidency,  when- 
ever the  emperor  was  not  present  in  person,  and  the  secre- 
taries received  all  petitions,  etc.  The  electoral  princes  de- 
cided all  questions  by  vote,  of  which  each  had  one.  The 
bench  of  princes  was  subdivided  into  two  colleges,  one  of 
which  consisted  of  the  spiritual  and  temporal  princes,  who 
were  not  electors,  the  other  of  prelates  (abbots)  and  counts. 
The  spiritual  princes  were  those  who  as  princes  of  the 
empire  were  independent  in  temporal  matters  of  the  other 
princes.  During  the  gradual  decay  of  the  ancient  duchies, 
the  subordinate  bishops  and  even  some  of  the  abbots  declared 
themselves  independent,  and  it  was  only  in  the  Habsburg- 
Burgundian  hereditary  province  that  they  still  remained  sub- 
ordinate to  the  princes;  the  powerful  archbishops  and  bish- 
ops of  Prague,  Breslau,  Olmutz,  and  the  United  Netherlands 
were,  consequently,  simply  Austrian  subjects,  and  were  un- 
represented in  the  diet.  The  numbers  of  the  spiritual  princes 
of  the  empire  had  been  greatly  thinned  by  the  Reformation 
on  account  of  the  defalcation  of  the  majority  of  those  of 
Northern  Germany.  Of  the  temporal  princes  every  house 
had  a  vote,  and  disputes  often  arose  between  the  different 
lines,  each  of  which  claimed  that  right,  or  on  account  of 
fresh  houses  raised  to  the  dignity  of  prince.  The  numerous 
princes  created  by  Ferdinand  II.  of  Austria  in  imitation  of 
the  Spanish  grandees  were  refused  admission  to  the  bench 
occupied  by  the  houses  of  more  ancient  date.  The  prelates 
were  divided  into  two  benches,  the  Swabian  and  Rhenish, 
each  of  which  possessed  but  a  single  vote.  The  counts  were 
divided  into  two  benches,  the  Swabian  and  Wetterauan,  to 
which  were,  in  1640,  added  the  Frauconian,  and,  in  1655, 
the  Westphalian,  and  here  again  each  bench,  not  each  in- 


INTERNAL    STATE   DURING    REFORMATION        1083 

dividual,  possessed  one  vote.  In  the  same  manner,  since 
1474,  the  college  of  the  cities  consisted  of  two  benches,  each 
of  which  had  one  vote,  the  Rhenish,  over  which  Cologne, 
and  the  Swabian,  over  which  Ratisbon,  presided.  The 
barons  of  the  empire,  although  not  represented  in  the  diet, 
were  recognized  as  an  Estate  of  the  empire,  and  consisted 
of  three  circles,  the  Swabian,  Franconian,  and  Rhenish, 
controlled  by  a  directory  selected  from  among  themselves. 
The  diet  was,  moreover,  collectively  divided  into  two  bodies, 
according  to  the  difference  of  religion,  the  corpus  Catholi- 
corum  and  the  corpus  Evangelicorum.  Every  question, 
however,  naturally  depended  upon  the  great  princes,  whose 
separate  votes  always  gave  them  the  majority.  The  taxes 
and  levy  of  troops  were  divided  among  the  circles,  each  of 
which  had  a  captain,  generally  the  most  powerful  prince 
within  its  limits.  The  emperor,  even  in  his  character  as 
president  over  the  imperial  chamber,  the  highest  court  of 
justice  for  the  whole  of  the  German  people,  and  over  the 
imperial  aulic  council,  the  highest  court  of  justice  for  the 
princes,  was  dependent  upon  the  voices  of  the  princes,  and 
was  unable  to  execute  any  sentence  he  might  venture  to  pro- 
nounce in  condemnation  of  one  of  their  number.  The  same 
was  the  case  in  regard  to  the  appropriation  of  feofs  lapsed 
to  the  crown.  The  most  distant  claims  were  asserted  in 
defiance  of  the  emperor,  the  whole  of  whose  authority  was 
limited  to  the  grant  of  titles,  the  protection  of  the  less  power- 
ful among  the  Estates,  and  the  promotion  of  commerce.  The 
powerful  princes  pursued  a  perfectly  independent  course. 

In  this  manner,  the  diets  naturally  declined.  Affairs  of 
importance  were  transacted  by  writing  or  by  diplomatic  means 
through  ambassadors  between  the  potentates  of  the  empire, 
and  the  weak  were  either  compelled  to  yield,  or,  by  their  dis- 
sent, multiplied  the  negotiations  without  exercising  any  de- 
cisive influence  over  them.  The  princes  rarely  appeared  in 
person  at  the  diet,  and  their  ambassadors,  as  well  as  the  city 
deputies,  while  engaged  in  informing  their  master  or  their 
constituents  of  the  progress  of  the  question  and  in  awaiting 


1084  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

instructions,  generally  allowed  the  moment  for  action  to  slip 
by.  This  procrastination,  however,  suited  the  Estates,  who, 
from  selfishness  or  from  jealousy  of  the  house  of  Habsburg, 
ever  refused  to  assist  the  crown,  however  urgent  the  demand. 
Sultan  Suleiman  II.  justly  remarked,  "The  Germans  delib- 
erate, I  act !' ' 

The  election  of  the  emperor  and  his  coronation,  mean- 
while, still  retained  much  of  their  ancient  solemnity  and 
splendor,  but  Aix-la-Chapelle  had  gradually  sunk  into  obliv- 
ion. Both  ceremonies  now  took  place  at  Frankfort  on  the 
Maine,  whither  the  regalia,  kept  at  Nuremberg,  were  regu- 
larly carried.  These  consisted,  first,  of  sacred  relics,  a  piece 
of  the  holy  cross,  a  thorn  from  the  Saviour's  crown,  St.  Mau- 
rice's sword,  a  link  of  St.  Paul's  chain,  etc.  Secondly,  of  the 
insignia  of  the  empire,  the  massive  golden  crown,  weighing 
fourteen  pounds,  of  Charlemagne,  set  with  rough  diamonds, 
the  golden  ball,  sceptre,  and  sword  of  that  great  monarch, 
the  imperial  mantle  and  robes,  the  priestly  stole  and  the 
rings.  The  election  over,  a  peal  of  bells  ushered  in  the 
coronation  day;  the  emperor  and  all  the  princes  assembled 
in  the  Bomer  and  proceeded  thence  on  horseback  to  the 
cathedral,  where,  mass  having  been  read,  the  elector  of 
Mayence  rose  as  first  bishop  and  arch- chancellor  of  the  em- 
pire, and,  staff  in  hand,  demanded  of  the  emperor,  "Vis  s. 
fidem  catholicam  servare?"  to  which  he  replied,  "Volo," 
and  took  the  oath  on  the  gospel.  Mayence  then  asked  the 
electors  "whether  they  recognized  the  elected  as  emperor?" 
to  which  they  with  one  accord  replied,  "Fiat."  The  em- 
peror then  took  his  seat,  and  was  anointed  by  Mayence — 
while  Brandenburg  held  the  vessel  and  assisted  in  half  dis- 
robing the  emperor— on  the  crown  of  the  head,  the  breast, 
the  neck,  the  shoulder,  the  arm,  the  wrist,  and  the  flat  of 
the  hand;  after  which  he  was  attired  in  the  robes  of  Charle- 
magne, and  the  ceremony  was  concluded  in  front  of  the  al- 
tar by  Mayence,  assisted  by  Cologne  and  Treves.  The  em- 
peror, adorned  with  the  crown,  then  mounted  the  throne, 
the  hymn  of   St.   Ambrose  being  meanwhile  chanted,  and 


INTERNAL    STATE    DURING    REFORMATION        1085 

performed  his  first  act  as  emperor  by  bestowing  the  honor 
of  knighthood  with  the  sword  of  Charlemagne,  usually  on 
a  member  of  the  family  of  Dalberg  of  Rhenish  Franconia, 
which  became  so  customary  that  the  herald  demanded,  "Is 
no  Dalberg  here?"  The  emperor  headed  the  procession  on 
foot  back  to  the  Romer.  Cloths  of  purple  were  spread  on 
the  way  and  afterward  given  to  the  people.  The  banquet 
was  spread  in  the  Romer.  The  emperor  and  (when  there 
happened  to  be  one)  the  Roman  king  sat  alone  at  a  table  six 
feet  high,  the  princes  below,  the  empress  on  one  side  three 
feet  lower  than  the  emperor.  The  electoral  princes  performed 
their  offices.  Bohemia,  the  imperial  cupbearer,  rode  to  a 
fountain  of  wine  and  bore  the  first  glass  to  the  emperor; 
Pfalz  rode  to  an  ox  roasting  whole,  and  carved  the  first  slice 
for  the  emperor;  Saxony  rode  up  to  his  horse's  belly  into  a 
heap  of  oats  and  filled  a  measure  for  his  lord;  and,  lastly, 
Brandenburg  rode  to  a  fountain  and  filled  the  silver  ewer. 
The  wine,  ox,  oats,  and  imperial  banquet,  with  all  the  dishes 
and  vessels,  were,  in  conclusion,  given  up  to  the  people. 

According  to  the  imperial  register,  in  1521,  under 
Charles  V.,  the  imperial  Estates  were  divided  as  follows: 
1st,  Circle  of  Austria.  Archduke  of  Austria  (Habsburg). 
Bishops  of  Trent,  Bhxen,  Gurk,  Sekau,  Lavant.  2d,  Cir- 
cle of  Burgundy.  Duke  of  Burgundy  (Habsburg).  3d, 
Circle  of  the  Lower  Rhine.  Archbishops  of  Mayence,  Co- 
logne, Treves,  and  the  Rhenish  Pfalzgraf,  of  the  house 
of  Wittelsbach,  all  four  electoral  princes.  Also  the  city  of 
Gelnhausen.  4th,  Circle  of  Franconia.  Bishops  of  Bam- 
berg, Wurzburg,  and  Eichstadt.  The  master  of  the  Teu- 
tonic order  of  Mergentheim.  The  Margraves  of  Branden- 
burg at  Anspach,  Baireuth,  Culmbach  (formerly  Burgraves 
of  Nuremberg),  of  the  house  of  Hohenzollern.  The  Counts 
of  Uohenlohe,  Erbach,  and  other  petty  nobles.  The  cities  ol 
Nuremberg,  Windsheim,  Weissenburg,  Rotenburg,  Schwein- 
furt.  5th,  Circle  of  Swabia.  Bishops  of  Augsburg,  Con- 
stance, Coire.  Abbots  of  Kempten,  Reichenau,  St.  Gall, 
Weiugarten,  and  numerous  others.     Duke  of  Wurtemberg, 


1086  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

Margrave  of  Baden,  Counts  von  Ettingen,  Furstenberg, 
Montfort,  Eberstein,  Loewenstein,  Helfenstein,  etc.  Innu- 
merable petty  nobles.  Cities:  Augsburg,  Ulm,  Kempten, 
Leutkirch,  Wangen,  Ravensberg,  Ueberlingen,  Pfullendorf, 
Schaffhausen,  Esslingen,  Weil,  Wimpfen,  Dunkelsbuhl, 
Gruningen,  Ncerdlingen,  Buchau,  Gengenbach,  Rotweil, 
Kaufbeuren,  Memmingen,  Biberach,  Isny,  Lindau,  Buch- 
horn,  Constance,  St.  Gall,  Reutlingen,  Gmund,  Heilbronn, 
Halle,  Boprlngen,  Aalen,  Donauwcerth,  Offenburg,  Zell. 
6th,  Circle  of  Bavaria.  Archbishop  of  Salzburg.  Bishops 
of  Passau,  Freising,  Ratisbon,  Kemsen  (Chiemsee).  Duke  of 
Bavaria  and  Pfalzgraf  of  Neuburg,  of  the  house  of  Wittels- 
bach.  Landgrave  of  Leuchtenberg  (shortly  afterward  ex- 
tinct), Count  von  Ortenberg,  and  some  others  of  lesser  note. 
The  city  of  Ratisbon.  7th,  The  Circle  of  the  Upper  Rhine. 
Bishops  of  Worms,  Strasburg,  Besancon,  Geneva,  Metz, 
Verdun,  Spires,  Basel,  Sion,  Lausanne,  Toul.  Princely 
abbots  of  Fulda,  Hirschfeld,  and  numerous  others  of  lesser 
note.  Duke  of  Lorraine  and  of  Savoy,  Landgrave  of  Hesse, 
Count  of  Nassau,  Rheiugrave  von  Salm,  Counts  von  Bitsch, 
Hanau,  Leiningen,  Falkenstein,  Isenburg,  Solms,  Wittgen- 
stein, Waldeck,  etc.  Cities:  Basel,  Colmar,  Turkheim,  Ober 
Ebenheim,  Roszheim,  Hagenau,  Landau,  Worms,  Friedeburg, 
Metz,  Verdun,  Besancon,  Gailhausen,  Muhlhausen,  Kaisers- 
berg,  Munster  (in  the  Georgenthal),  Strasburg,  Schlettstadt, 
Weissenburg,  Spires,  Frankfort,  Wetzlar,  Toul,  Saarbruck. 
8th,  Circle  of  Westphalia.  Bishops  of  Paderborn,  Utrecht, 
Cammerich,  Verdun,  Liege,  Munster,  Osnabruck,  Minden. 
Abbots  of  Corvey,  Stablo,  etc.  Abbesses  of  Hervorden,  Es- 
sen, etc.  Dukes  of  Juliers  and.  Berg,  Cleves  and  Mark. 
Counts  von  Oldenburg,  P^entheim,  Wied,  Manderscheid, 
Lippe,  Mcers,  etc.  Cities:  Cologne,  Wesel,  Cammerich, 
Soest,  Hervorden,  Warberg,  Verdun,  Aix- la-Chapel le,  Deu- 
bern,  Dortmund,  Duisburg,  Bragkel,  Lengad.  9th,  Circle 
of  Upper  Saxony.  Elector  of  Saxony,  of  the  house  of  Wet- 
tin.  Elector  of  Brandenburg,  of  the  house  of  Hohenzollern. 
The  master  of  the  Teutonic  order  in  Prussia,  and  the  land- 


INTERNAL   STATE   DURING    REFORMATION        1087 

master  in  Livonia.  Bishops  of  Misnia,  Merseburg,  Naum- 
burg,  Brandenburg,  Havelberg,  Lebus,  Camin;  abbess  of 
Quedlinburg,  abbot  of  Saalfeld,  Wolkenried,  etc.  Dukes 
of  Saxon-Thuringia  (the  Albertine  line  of  the  house  of  Wet- 
tin).  Dukes  of  Pomerania,  princes  of  An  halt,  Counts  von 
Mansfeld,  Schwarzburg,  Stolberg,  Hohenstein,  Gleichen, 
etc.  Cities:  Dantzig,  Elbing,  Wolkenried.  10th,  Circle  of 
Lower  Saxony.  Archbishops  of  Magdeburg  and  Bremen. 
Bishops  of  Halberstadt,  Hildesheim,  Lubeck,  Schwerm, 
Ratzeburg,  Schleswig.  Dukes  of  Holstein  (king  of  Den- 
mark, of  the  house  of  Oldenburg),  Brunswick  (of  the  house 
of  Guelph),  Saxon-Lauenburg  (of  the  house  of  Anhalt),  and 
Mecklenburg.  Cities:  Lubeck,  Hamburg,  Gcettingen,  Gos- 
lar,  Nordhausen,  Muhlhausen,  Wismar,  Rostock,  Stralsund, 
Brunswick,  Magdeburg,  Lemgo,  Erfurt,  Limburg. 

Each  of  the  Estates  suffered  by  the  religious  war,  the 
princes  alone  gained  thereby.  The  aristocracy  and  the  cities 
sank  in  power  and  independence,  while  the  power  of  the 
princely  houses  rose  by  the  establishment  of  the  right  of 
primogeniture.  In  1621,  the  indivisibility  of  the  hereditary 
provinces  of  the  house  of  Habsburg  was  passed  into  a  law; 
the  house  of  Wittelsbach  in  Bavaria  had  done  the  same  in 
1545,  but  too  late,  the  other  branch  having  already  fixed 
itself  in  the  Pfalz,  where  the  division  of  the  family  posses- 
sions still  continued. 

The  electoral  house  lost  the  Upper  Pfalz  to  Bavaria; 
the  collateral  line  of  Pfalz-Neuburg  divided  the  Cleve  in- 
heritance with  Brandenburg,  and,  in  1666,  came  into  the 
aotual  possession  of  Berg  and  Juliers;  in  1683,  this  line  re- 
placed the  extinct  electoral  house.  The  other  collateral  line, 
Pfalz-Birkenfeld,  surviving  the  rest  of  the  Wittelsbacher, 
came  into  sole  possession  of  the  whole  of  the  Bavarian  in- 
heritance. A  descendant  of  this  line,  Charles  Gustavus, 
mounted  the  throne  of  Sweden  in  1654. — The  house  of 
Hohenzollern  was  also  divided  into  the  Brandenburg  and 
Franconian  lines,  the  house  of  Wettin  into  those  of  Saxony 
and  Thuringia,  the  house  of  Guelph  into  those  of  Luneburg 


1088  THE    HISTORY    OF    GERMANY 

and  Wolfenbuttel.  Hesse,  Baden,  Mecklenburg,  and  An- 
halt  were  also  subdivided.  Wurtemberg  formed  a  single 
exception  among  the  Protestant  houses  and  established  the 
right  of  primogeniture  at  a  much  earlier  period.  The  right 
of  primogeniture  in  the  Catholic  reigning  families  and  the 
subdivision  of  the  possessions  of  the  Protestant  princes  exer- 
cised a  great  influence  over  the  war  of  religion.  The  sub- 
division of  the  possessions  of  the  petty  princes,  Hohenlohe, 
Waldburg,  Schwarzburg,  Beuss,  Lippe,  etc.,  also  contrib- 
uted to  diminish  the  little  power  they  possessed. 

The  demoralization  engendered  by  this  subdivision  and 
by  the  family  disputes  to  which  it  gave  rise,  and  which  were, 
moreover,  fed  by  the  religious  war  and  by  the  sovereignty 
usurped  by  the  princes  independent  of  both  emperor  and 
pope,  and  pervading  most  of  the  courts  of  Germany,  has 
been  already  mentioned.  The  ancient  sturdiness  of  the  Ger- 
man character  was  long  perceptible  in  the  sports  of  the  field, 
nor  was  it  until  vice  had  gradually  sapped  both  mental  and 
physical  vigor  that  more  effeminate  amusements  were  intro- 
duced in  their  stead,  that  the  ancient  tournament  yielded  to 
the  childish  sport  of  running  at  the  ring,  and  shallow  wits 
were  salaried  for  the  entertainment  of  the  great.  Fools, 
misshapen  dwarfs,  Moors,  apes,  etc.,  became  court  append- 
ages. Immoderate  drinking  was  at  first  the  fashionable  vice 
among  the  princes,  whose  successors,  enervated  both  in  mind 
and  body,  brought  license  on  the  throne.  The  nobles,  de- 
generated by  court  life,  quitted  their  fastnesses,  whose  walls 
no  longer  resisted  the  artillery  of  the  besieger,  threw  off 
their  armor,  that  no  longer  protected  them  from  the  bullet, 
and  exchanged  their  broad  battle-swords  for  the  pretty  toy 
worn  by  the  courtier.  Here  and  there,  however,  might  still 
be  found  a  noble  man  of  the  old  school  living  on  his  estate, 
but  the  country  nobility  were  regarded  as  far  beneath  the 
courtly  aristocracy.  The  ancient  and  free-spirited  nobility 
in  the  hereditary  provinces  had  been  almost  entirely  exter- 
minated by  war,  the  headsman's  axe,  and  emigration,  and 
had  been  replaced  by  proselytes  and  foreign  adventurers,  on 


INTERNAL   STATE    DURING    REFORMATION        1089 

whom  the  emperor  had  bestowed  the  titles  of  princes  and 
counts  with  rich  estates,  in  order  to  form  a  fresh  nobility  on 
the  model  of  the  Spanish  grandees,  in  other  words,  a  splen- 
did household,  from  which  the  higher  officers,  both  civil  and 
military,  were  selected.  The  lower  nobility,  almost  entirely 
expatriated,  were  replaced  by  a  species  of  Hidalgo  or  noble 
by  patent;  titles  being  by  the  court  lavished  on  or  sold  to  its 
civic  followers.  The  example  given  by  Austria  was  followed 
by  the  other  German  courts,  and  the  families  of  ancient  no- 
bility that  still  remained  were  compelled  to  admit  very  un- 
worthy subjects,  such  as  the  families  of  favored  mistresses, 
etc.,  into  their  ranks.  The  ancient  families,  disgusted  at 
this  innovation,  took  refuge  in  pride  of  ancestry,  to  which 
those  least  distinguished  by  personal  qualities  the  more  ob- 
stinately clung.     Duelling  was  also  a  noble  prerogative. 

The  princes  had  reduced  the  clergy  to  submission  by  the 
Reformation,  the  nobility  by  modern  military  tactics,  the 
cities  by  the  decay  of  commerce,  and  the  peasantry  in 
the  peasant  war.  The  wretched  results  of  the  thirty  years' 
war  utterly  annihilated  the  ancient  power  of  the  provincial 
Estates,  which  were  either  entirely  dissolved  or  rendered  a 
blind  tool  of  the  government.  Wurtemberg,  the  sole  excep- 
tion, remained  a  miniature  constitutional  England  in  the 
heart  of  enslaved  Germany. — The  governments  were  formed 
on  the  French  model.  Up  to  this  period,  every  German 
tribe  had  from  the  earliest  times  participated  in  the  govern- 
ment. France  first  offered  the  example  of  a  despotic  mon- 
archy modelled  on  that  of  ancient  Rome  and  Greece  under 
the  emperors,  which  now  served  as  a  pattern  to  the  princes 
of  Germany.  The  prince,  either  alone  in  his  cabinet  or  aided 
by  his  chancellor  and  privy  councillors,  deliberated  over  all 
affairs  of  state.  His  will  was  law.  The  provinces  were 
governed  by  officers  of  the  crown,  who  imposed  and  levied 
taxes.  The  chambers,  by  which  the  revenue  and  expenses 
of  the  state  were  controlled,  were  the  most  important  care 
of  the  government.  Funds  were  required  for  the  mainte- 
nance of  the  splendor  of  the  court;  funds  were  required  by 

Germany.     Vol.  III.— 8 


1090  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

the  cabinet  for  the  maintenance  of  ambassadors,  for  purposes 
of  bribery  and  corruption  at  foreign  courts,  etc.  Funds  were 
required  by  the  government  for  the  maintenance  of  an  army 
during  war  and  peace,  for  the  foundation  of  public  institu- 
tions, etc.  Every  imaginable  means  of  raising  these  neces- 
sary funds  was  consequently  resorted  to.  The  demesnes  of 
the  sovereign,  confiscated  church  property,  or  lapsed  fiefs 
were,  like  a  large  country  estate,  turned  to  the  profit  of  the 
crown.  The  coinage,  tolls,  and  mines  were  applied  to  the 
same  purpose.  Fresh  royal  dues  were  created  by  the  sale  of 
privileges,  titles,  offices,  and  even  justice,  or  by  the  reserva- 
tion of  immense  monopolies.  While  the  revenue  and  pre- 
rogatives of  the  chambers  were  by  these  means  extended, 
the  people  were  oppressed  with  heavy  taxes.  The  wealth 
possessed  by  the  subject  was  estimated  by  the  government 
as  a  capital,  in  point  of  fact,  belonging  to  the  sovereign,  and 
lent  by  him  to  his  subjects  at  an  arbitrary  percentage. 

The  general  German  and  imperial  courts  of  justice  fell, 
like  the  local  and  private  courts,  into  disuse,  and  were  re 
placed  by  the  provincial  courts  of  the  different  principalities 
The  Roman  law,  which  had  long  been  in  use,  became  gen 
eral,  and  formed  the  substratum  of  all  provincial  law.     Al 
laws  of  German  origin  had  fallen  into  contempt.     The  popu 
lar  courts  of  justice,  consequently,  fell  into  disuse.     Neither 
the  commune,  nor  the  elected  judge,  nor  the  Feme,  the  last 
free  popular  court  of  justice,  could  any  longer  hold  a  tribunal. 
The  whole  of  the  judicial  power  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
princes,  who  committed  it  to  one  particular  class,  the  law- 
yers, who  were  instructed  in  the  universities  in  the  Roman 
law  and  appointed  as  judges  and  salaried  by  the  prince.    The 
people,  ignorant  of  the  Roman  law,  were  compelled  to  intrust 
their  complaints  and  defence  before  the  court  to  another  espe- 
cial class,  connected  with  the  law,  that  of  the  advocates,  who 
aided  the  judges  in  deceiving  their  clients  as  interest  or  ca- 
price prompted.     Decisions  were  secret.    The  Feme  had  been 
dissolved,  but  its  worst  feature,  secrecy,  was  retained.    Law- 
suits were  conducted  in  writing,  for  the  sake  of  greater  ex- 


INTERNAL    STATE   DURING    REFORMATION        1091 

actitu.de,  and,  in  case  of  appeal,  for  the  delivery  of  documents 
to  the  higher  courts.  These  written  proceedings  naturally 
required  time,  and  the  procrastination  of  a  decision  was  ad- 
vantageous to  both  judge  and  advocate,  all  costs  being  paid 
by  the  contending  parties.  This  was  the  worst  of  all.  Jus- 
tice was  no  longer  dispensed  gratis.  The  poor  were  com- 
pelled to  purchase  their  right,  and  the  lawyers  enriched 
themselves  at  their  expense.  People  now  frequently  applied 
for  justice  to  neutral  judges,  presumed  to  be  masters  of  their 
profession  and  impartial,  and  who  were  to  be  found  among 
the  professors  in  the. universities,  to  whom  important  suits 
were  referred  for  decision.  The  ancient  bench  of  justices  at 
Leipzig,  filled  by  the  learned  professors  of  that  university, 
was  raised  in  this  manner  to  the  dignity  of  a  higher  court  of 
appeal.  The  note  to  which  it  attained  may  be  judged  from 
the  fact  that  the  greatest  lawyer  of  those  times,  Benedict 
Carpzow,  who  sat  on  the  Leipzig  bench  from  1620  to  1666, 
decided  no  less  than  twenty  thousand  capital  sentences. 

The  barbarous  and  dishonoring  punishments  inflicted  by 
the  degenerate  Eomans  on  their  slaves  were  still  enforced 
upon  the  free-born  German.  The  punishment  of  the  rack 
or  torture  was  taken  from  the  Roman  law.  The  criminal 
code  of  Charles  V.,  the  Carolina,  was  an  abridgment  of  all 
these  barbarous  and  wicked  innovations.  Every  township 
and  provincial  court  had  its  torture-chamber,  where  the  ac- 
cused was  racked  in  all  his  limbs,  thumb-screwed,  pricked 
under  his  nails,  burned  with  boiling  lead,  oil,  or  vitriol,  until 
he  confessed.  The  innocent,  unable  to  bear  the  horrible 
torture,  consequently  often  confessed  the  crimes  with  which 
they  were  charged  and  were  condemned  to  death.  Every 
township  and  court  had  also  its  place  of  execution.  Where- 
ever  a  hill  commanding  a  lovely  prospect  rose  in  the  vicinity 
of  a  town,  its  summit  was  crowned  with  a  gallows  and  a 
wheel  and  covered  with  the  bones  of  victims.  The  simple 
punishment  of  death  no  longer  satisfied  the  pampered  appe- 
tite of  the  criminal  judge.  Torture  was  formed  into  a  sys- 
tem, and   the  horrors  practiced   by  the  ancient  tyrants  of 


1092  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

Persia  and  of  Rome,  by  the  American  savage  in  his  war- 
like fanaticism,  were,  in  cold  blood,  legalized  by  the  lawyers 
throughout  Germany.  The  chopping  off  of  hands,  the  cut- 
ting out  of  tongues,  blinding,  pinching  with  red-hot  tongs, 
cutting  slices  out  of  the  back,  tearing  out  the  heart,  impal- 
ing, wrenching  off  limb  by  limb  with  the  iron  wheel,  quar- 
tering with  four  horses  or  with  oxen  in  order  to  lengthen  the 
torture,  modified  the  simplicity  of  beheading,  hanging,  and 
burning.  A  species  of  tyrannical  wit  was  sometimes  dis- 
played in  the  mode  of  punishment.  In  Switzerland,  bigamy 
was  punished  by  the  criminal  being  cut  in  two,  and  one  half 
of  his  person  being  given  to  each  of  his  wives.  In  Augs- 
burg, the  clergy  were  enclosed  in  iron  cages  and  hung  as 
singing  birds  on  the  church  towers,  where  they  were  left  to 
perish  with  hunger;  as  grievous  crimes  could  not  be  left  un- 
punished, and  the  temporal  power  could  inflict  no  corporal 
punishment  on  a  member  of  the  church.  Jewish  thieves 
were  hanged  by  the  legs  between  two  dogs.  Poachers  were 
chained  to  the  stag,  which  was  turned  loose  into  the  woods, 
or  were  sewn  into  a  deerskin  and  thrown  to  the  dogs.  In 
the  white  tower  at  Cologne,  bread  was  hung  high  above  the 
heads  of  the  criminals,  who  were  thus  compelled  either  to 
break  their  necks  by  clambering  up  to  it,  or  to  die  of  hunger; 
etc.,  etc. 

The  prince  chiefly  maintained  his  authority  by  means  of 
his  mercenaries.  Formerly  the  whole  of  the  population  bore 
arms,  afterward  only  the  feudal  nobility  and  the  citizens; 
the  power  was  therefore  formerly  in  the  hands  of  the  citi- 
zens, and  afterward  in  those  of  the  nobility  and  citizens, 
who  were  in  their  turn  ere  long  compelled  to  cede  their  arms 
to  the  soldiery  and  their  power  to  the  princes,  the  soldiers' 
paymasters.  After  the  invention  of  gunpowder,  of  heavy 
artillery,  the  consequent  introduction  of  the  new  method  of 
carrying  on  sieges,  and  of  modern  tactics,  a  strong  arm  and 
a  brave  heart  no  longer  guaranteed  success  in  the  battlefield, 
but  the  experience  and  discipline  of  regular  troops.  Corps 
consequently  formed  under  experienced  leaders,  which,  like 


INTERNAL   STATE   DURING    REFORMATION        1093 

the  armed  societies  of  the  ancient  Germans,  were  governed 
by  their  own  laws  and  made  war  their  profession.  They 
had  no  fixed  abode,  only  for  a  certain  time  serving  those 
who  gave  them  highest  pay;  after  which  they  were  free, 
and  would  not  infrequently  enrol  themselves  beneath  the 
standard  of  their  late  opponent.  They  regarded  war  as  a 
means  of  livelihood,  without  regard  to  its  cause  or  object. 
They  had  their  private  treasury,  their  private  tribunal  that 
passed  sentence  of  life  or  death,  and,  with  their  women  and 
children,  formed  a  petty  migratory  force  that  partly  re- 
cruited itself,  their  children  and  the  boys  that  attached 
themselves  to  them  becoming  in  their  turn  soldiers.  The 
notorious  Black  Guard,  which,  for  almost  a  century,  main- 
tained its  full  numbers  and  served  under  almost  every  prince 
in  Europe,  was  a  band  of  this  description.  On  the  gradual 
decay  of  the  power  of  the  aristocracy  and  of  the  cities,  and 
on  the  opening  of  the  Reformation,  when  the  mass  through- 
out Germany  was  in  a  state  of  strong  fermentation,  the 
mercenary,  particularly  the  foreign,  troops,  afforded  a  con- 
venient means  to  the  princes  for  keeping  their  refractory 
Estates  or  rebellious  subjects  in  check  and  the  people  under 
subjection.  They  were  consequently  retained  during  peace 
as  body-guards  and  household  troops  and  as  garrisons  in  the 
fortresses  formerly  defended  by  the  nobles  or  the  citizens. 
This  foreign  soldiery  brought  foreign  terms  into  use  during 
the  thirty  years'  war.  The  various  troops  were  formed  into 
companies  under  a  captain,  a  certain  number  of  which  com- 
posed a  regiment,  commanded  by  a  colonel.  Several  of 
these  regiments  were  again  commanded  by  a  general,  and 
the  generals  were,  in  large  armies,  in  their  turn  subordinate 
to  the  field-marshal  or  generalissimo.  The  interior  economy 
of  the  army,  the  court-martial,  etc.,  also  required  a  crowd 
of  especial  officers,  such  as  master  of  the  ordnance,  quarter- 
master-general, provost-marshal,  etc.,  while  its  spiritual 
wants  were  supplied  by  military  chaplains  and  a  chaplain- 
general. 

The  first  mercenaries  were  Swiss,  and  merely  consisted  of 


1094  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

infantry  that  generally  advanced  to  the  attack  in  a  wedge, 
armed  with  jagged  clubs  (morning  stars),  and  with  extremely 
broad,  double-handed  swords.  They  were  succeeded  by  the 
German  lancers,  who  bore  immensely  long  pikes,  at  one  end 
of  which  was  a  hatchet  (halberds,  partisans).  To  these  were 
shortly  afterward  associated  the  arquebusiers,  who  used  the 
first  guns,  which,  on  account  of  their  weight,  were  rested 
upon  forks,  for  the  purpose  of  taking  aim.  The  Spanish 
arquebusiers  were  the  most  celebrated.  Gustavus  Adolphus 
introduced  a  lighter  gun,  the  musket,  which  has  ever  since 
been  used  by  the  infantry.  The  Croatians  in  the  imperial 
armies  first  distinguished  themselves  as  light  infantry  for 
skirmishing  and  for  harassing  the  advanced  guard  and  the 
rear  flanks  of  the  enemy.  In  the  cavalry,  the  ancient  knights 
and  squires  were  succeeded  by  the  troopers  or  cuirassiers, 
who  still  retained  the  armor  and  helmet.  The  dragoons, 
without  armor,  with  a  hat  instead  of  a  helmet,  armed  with 
the  carbine,  a  species  of  light  cavalry,  that  could  also  serve 
on  foot,  were  first  introduced  by  Mansfeld  and  were  more 
systematically  organized  by  Gustavus  Adolphus.  To  these 
were  finally  added  a  body  of  light  cavalry  for  outpost  duty 
and  skirmishing,  the  Hungarian  Hussars  and  the  Polish 
Cossacks  in  the  imperial  army. — The  artillery  at  first  bore 
great  affinity  to  the  gigantic  and  awkward  catapult.  The 
first  light  artillery  was  introduced  by  Gustavus  Adolphus. 
Maurice,  Prince  of  Orange,  brought  the  art  of  siege  to 
greater  perfection.  The  first  routine  in  tactics  was  practiced 
by  the  Swiss,  who  also  introduced  the  square,  as  affording 
the  best  protection  to  infantry  against  the  cavalry.  Gus- 
tavus Adolphus  laid  at  first  great,  perhaps  too  great,  weight 
on  military  science,  and  in  his  tactics  decidedly  favored 
attacks  on  the  enemy's  flanks. 

CCXV.    The  Citizens  and  the  Peasantry 

The  fourteenth  century  was  the  heroic  age  of  the  cities; 
in  the  fifteenth,  they  reached  the  summit  of  their  power,  but 


INTERNAL    STATE   DURING    REFORMATION        1095 

bad  already  become  disunited  and  slothful;  in  the  sixteenth, 
they  suffered  by  religious  factions,  by  the  attacks  of  the 
princes,  and  by  the  decrease  of  commerce,  which  passed 
principally  into  the  hands  of  the  Dutch  and  English;  the 
thirty  years'  war  completed  their  ruin.  The  confederated 
cities  of  the  Rhine  and  Upper  Germany  were  included  in  the 
newly-constituted  circles,  although  still  regarded  as  free  im- 
perial cities;  the  single  cities  fell  without  exception  to  decay, 
while  those  of  lesser  importance  became  objects  of  ridicule 
with  the  imperial  eagle  over  their  low  gates  and  with  their 
petty  corporations.  The  great  cities  on  the  Rhine,  Mayence 
and  Cologne,  fell  under  the  dominion  of  their  ecclesiastical 
princes,  which  not  a  little  contributed  to  the  rise  of  the  free 
imperial  city  of  Frankfort  on  the  Maine.  Of  the  Hanse 
towns,  Hamburg,  Bremen,  and  Lubeck  alone  retained  their 
ancient  independence;  the  rest  fell,  like  Brunswick,  partially, 
or,  like  Magdeburg,  Wismar,  and  Stralsund,  wholly  under 
the  princes  of  the  North.  In  Central  Germany,  Nuremberg 
maintained  her  freedom  against  the  petty  princes  of  Fran- 
conia;  Leipzig  rose  to  prosperity  through  the  favor  of  the 
elector  of  Saxony,  who  rendered  her  the  seat  of  a  general 
fair  for  the  whole  empire;  and  Ratisbon  enjoyed  a  respect- 
able neutrality  as  the  principal  scene  of  diplomatic  affairs. 
In  Brandenburg,  Saxony,  Bavaria,  and  Austria,  however, 
all  the  cities,  Vienna,  Prague,  Breslau,  Berlin  (the  ancient 
frontier  towns)  submitted,  after  a  violent  struggle,  to  the  re- 
spective sovereigns  of  those  countries.  Bavaria  even  made 
an  old  imperial  free  town,  Donauwoerth,  one  of  her  provincial 
cities. — Besides  these  towns  of  ancient  date,  there  sprang  up 
many  others  as  the  power  of  the  princes  increased,  particu- 
larly princely  residences  and  collegiate  towns. 

In  the  cities,  the  spirit  of  the  government  changed  from 
democratic  to  aristocratic.  The  great  commotions  in  the 
communes  terminated  in  silent  submission.  In  some  of  the 
cities  of  Southern  Germany  the  ancient  burgess  families  re- 
gained their  former  influence;  in  others,  a  new  hereditary 
aristocracy,    consisting  of   members   of   the   town   council, 


1096  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

sprang  from  the  ruling  corporations.  The  revolution  in  the 
government  of  the  cities  of  Northern  Germany,  although 
violent,  had  taken  place  at  a  later  period,  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  than  in  those  of  the  South,  and  had  been  merely 
transient  in  its  effects.  In  all  the  Hanse  towns,  the  more 
influential  among  the  burgher  families  had  never  raised  a 
broad  line  of  demarcation,  as  town-nobility,  between  them- 
selves and  the  rest  of  the  citizens,  but  had  admitted  among 
their  ranks  all  the  families  whom  wealth  or  merit  gradually 
raised  to  distinction,  and,  by  this  means,  gained  an  acces- 
sion of  wealth  and  talent,  against  which  the  lower  classes, 
the  workmen,  vainly  strove,  the  necessity  of  again  having 
recourse  to  commerce  and  trade  for  the  purpose  of  gaining  a 
livelihood  ever  replacing  the  government  in  the  hands  of  the 
merchants.  The  municipal  government,  once  so  powerful, 
had,  nevertheless,  fallen  in  the  Hanse  towns  as  it  had  every- 
where else.  Instead  of  bold  speculations,  the  maintenance 
of  prerogatives  and  of  family  wealth  were  alone  thought  of, 
and  gave  rise  to  the  practice,  bad  even  from  a  physical  point 
of  view,  of  intermarriage  between  near  of  kin.  In  Spires, 
which,  anterior  to  the  thirty  years'  war,  numbered  thirty 
thousand  inhabitants,  such  timidity  prevailed  that  even  the 
ancient  burgher  families  were  divided  into  three  degrees, 
according  to  the  antiquity  of  their  races,  and,  with  pedantic 
jealousy,  looked  with  scorn  upon  each  other  and  the  rest  of 
the  citizens.  The  denization  of  rising  families  or  of  individ- 
uals was  by  this  means  rendered  difficult,  and  any  participa- 
tion in  the  municipal  government  utterly  impossible.  The 
free,  proud  spirit  of  the  citizens  became  petty  and  enslaved, 
and  the  burgher  families  aped,  not  the  nobility,  as  their 
fathers  had  done  before  them,  but  the  servile  dependents  of 
the  court.  They  assumed  proud  titles,  decorated  themselves 
with  chains  and  orders,  played  the  diplomatist,  and,  notwith- 
standing their  wise  and  dignified  demeanor,  were  ever  over- 
reached or  bribed. 

Notwithstanding    the   decline   of    commerce,    the   cities 
continued  for  some  time  wealthy  and  prosperous,  and  civic 


INTERNAL    STATE    DURING    REFORMATION        1097 

luxury  rose  to  its  height  at  the  moment  when  civil  power 
first  showed  symptoms  of  decay.  The  citizens  rested  on 
their  laurels;  the  children  revelled  in  the  wealth  gained  by 
their  parents  in  the  sweat  of  their  brows.  The  love  of  lux- 
ury was  strengthened  by  the  example  of  the  courts  and  by 
the  immense  quantities  of  colonial  products  poured  into  Eu- 
rope. The  wealthy  citizens  vied  with  the  courtiers,  nay, 
with  the  prince  himself,  in  splendor.  Fugger  of  Augsburg, 
so  honorably  mentioned  by  Charles  V.,  was  raised  to  the 
dignity  of  count  and  afterward  to  that  of  prince.  Nor  was 
opulence  simply  confined  to  individuals;  the  excellent  ad- 
ministration of  the  town  property  and  the  public  spirit  of  the 
corporations  rendered  prosperity  general.  But  the  citizens 
were  enervated  by  luxury,  and  the  hand  that  had  wielded 
the  sword  now  seized  the  bowl.  Beer  was  at  that  time  one 
of  the  principal  productions  of  Northern  Germany,  and 
Magdeburg,  Eimbeck,  Zerbst,  Goslar,  Brunswick,  Ham- 
burg, and  Bremen  were  famous  for  their  immense  brew- 
eries.1 Several  of  the  princes  even  preferred  it  to  wine.  It 
afforded  a  wholesome  beverage  to  the  people,  whom  it  guar- 
anteed from  the  intoxicating  fumes  of  brandy,  flow,  may 
we  ask,  did  Northern  Germany  lose  this  important  branch 
of  her  industry  and  allow  her  population  to  be  enervated 
with  brandy,  while  Bavaria  now  solely  maintains  the  reputa- 
tion of  the  German  breweries? — The  citizens  also  vied  with 
the  nobility  in  magnificence  of  apparel.  Fantastical  modes, 
long-pointed  shoes,  immensely  wide  sleeves  and  hose,  etc., 
which  drew  the  public  animadversions  of  the  clergy,  became 
general;  but  wigs,  the  most  unnatural  of  all,  did  not  come  into 
fashion  until  after  the  thirty  years'  war.  Since  the  council 
of  Constance,  theatrical  performances,  particularly  during 
the  carnival  and  the  fairs,  also  came  into  vogue,  under  the 
name  of  farces  or  mummeries,  the  actors  being  (vermummt) 

1  Berckenmeyer,  in  his  antiquarian  curiosities,  gives  the  names  of  the 
different  brews  of  Northern  Germany,  as,  for  instance,  "Brunswick  Mumme, 
Halberstadt  Breyhan,  Goslar  Gose,  Breslau  Scheps,  Hallo  Puff,  Wittenberg 
Cuckoo,  Leipzig  Rastrum,  Zerbst  Wurze,  Osnabruck  Buso,  Minister  Koito,  Kiel 
Witte,  Colberg  Black." 


1098  THE    HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

masked.  Fun  and  frolic  characterized  the  popular  festivals. 
Each  guild  had  its  Hanswurst  (Jack-pudding)  in  imitation 
of  the  prince's  jester,  and,  in  the  excess  of  their  folly,  they 
executed  fantastical  chefs-d'oeuvre,  built  gigantic  tuns,  like 
that  at  Heidelberg,  founded  enormous  bells,  like  that  at 
Erfurt,  made  gigantic  sausages  and  loaves  to  match,  etc. 

Merely  a  shadow  of  the  mad  joviality  of  the  citizens  re- 
mained after  the  thirty  years'  war. 

The  cities  had  gradually  gained  in  circumference.  The 
danger  to  which  they  were  continually  exposed  had  caused 
the  citizens  to  collect  within  the  walls;  hence  the  narrow 
streets  and  the  tall,  dark  houses  in  the  old  part  of  the  towns. 
The  opulent  citizens,  nevertheless,  nobly  expended  their 
wealth  in  the  foundation  of  establishments  for  the  public 
benefit,  such  as  schools,  libraries,  hospitals,  poorhouses, 
hotels,  etc.  The  most  magnificent  of  these  establishments 
was  erected  in  the  sixteenth  century,  at  Augsburg,  by  Fug- 
ger,  who  built  upward  of  a  hundred  cottages  in  the  suburb 
of  St.  Jacob's,  as  refuges  for  the  poor;  it  was  not,  however, 
until  the  ensuing  century  that  sanitary  establishments  and 
poorhouses  were  brought  to  perfection  in  Holland.  The  ex- 
ample offered  in  this  respect  by  the  free  towns  and  republics 
had  a  beneficial  influence  upon  the  states.  Luxury  with  her 
train  of  concomitant  evils  had,  meanwhile,  rendered  an  im- 
moderate care  of  health  necessary,  and  sent  crowds  to  seek 
it  at  the  baths  of  Germany,  those  abodes  of  license  and 
quackery. 

The  Jews  were  still  confined  to  the  Jewries  or  Jews'  quar- 
ters, where  they  were  locked  in  at  nightfall;  and,  although 
their  lives  were  no  longer  unprotected  by  the  laws,  they  were 
the  objects  of  public  contumely,  which,  however,  did  not 
hinder  them  from  enriching  themselves  by  usury  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  Christians.  The  well-meant  attempt  made  by 
Christopher  the  Wise,  duke  of  Wurtcmberg,  to  banish  the 
Jews  from  the  Roman  empire  as  public  nuisances,  as  the 
secret  foes  to  the  nationality  and  religion  of  Germany,  as 
traitors  ever  on  the  watch  to  betray  the  empire  to  the  for- 


INTERNAL    STATE    DURING    REFORMATION        1099 

eigner,  as  crafty  and  demoralizing  speculators  on  the  im- 
providence, weaknesses,  and  vices  of  the  Christians,  failed, 
principally  on  account  of  the  countenance  at  that  time 
afforded  to  the  Jews  by  some  of  the  princes,  who  transacted 
business  with  them  on  an  immense  scale,  and,  by  means  of 
their  court  Jews,  drained  the  coffers  of  their  Christian  sub- 
jects.— The  gypsies,  another  foreign  race,  but  harmless  and 
unimportant  in  number,  made  their  first  appearance  in  Ger- 
many in  1422.  They  were  probably  an  Indian  race,  flying 
before  the  conquering  arms  of  Timur. 

The  peasantry  suffered  even  more  than  the  citizens  by 
the  thirty  years'  war.  With  the  exception  of  the  countries 
in  which  the  peasants  had  preserved  their  liberties  and 
rights,  Switzerland,  Holland,  and  Friesland,  the  whole  of 
Central  and  Eastern  Germany  was  peopled  with  slaves,  un- 
possessed of  honor,  wealth,  or  knowledge,  the  produce 
of  whose  toil  was  swallowed  up  by  the  nobility,  the  clergy 
and  the  court.  A  distinction  must,  nevertheless,  be  made 
between  the  originally  German  and  the  originally  Slavonian 
population.  In  the  Slavonian  East,  there  were  fewer  bur- 
dens and  more  personal  slavery;  in  the  German  West, 
greater  personal  freedom  and  heavier  dues.  In  Wurtem- 
berg,  for  instance,  the  serf  was  not  bound  to  the  soil  and 
was  free  to  quit  his  lord;  in  Austria,  Bohemia,  Silesia, 
and  the  frontier  provinces,  he  was  unpossessed  of  this  privi- 
lege. The  Wurtemberg  peasant  was,  on  the  other  hand,  far 
more  heavily  laden  with  oppressive  dues,  socage-service, 
and  exposed  to  heavier  punishments  than  the  half-slave  in 
the  East.  The  former  was  an  impoverished,  fallen,  ill-treated 
freeman,  whose  rebellious  spirit  hardships  alone  could  tame; 
the  latter  was  a  hereditary  bondman,  whose  patient  content 
befitted  the  patriarchal  position  of  his  lord. 

In  olden  times,  when  gold  was  scarce,  the  peasant-,  be- 
sides the  tithes  that  fell  to  the  church,  paid  his  lord  in  kind, 
a  portion  of  grain,  flax,  fruit,  grass,  a  cow  from  the  herd, 
a  hen  and  eggs  from  house  and  hearth.  He  also  paid  soc- 
age-service, that  is,  worked  in  person  and  with  his  horses 


1100  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANS 

for  his  lord.  These  dues  and  services  were  originally  mod- 
erate, but,  as  the  wants  of  the  nobility  gradually  increased, 
the  peasantry  became  more  heavily  oppressed,  and  their  con- 
sequent revolt  merely  afforded  to  the  nobility  an  opportunity 
and  an  excuse  for  a  more  systematic  mode  of  oppression. 

Socage  dues  were  arbitrarily  increased.  In  the  sixteenth 
century,  the  electors  of  Brandenburg  were  compelled  to 
set  a  limit  to  the  oppressive  practices  of  the  nobility,  and 
to  fix  the  services  performed  by  the  peasant  to  his  lord  at 
two  days  in  the  week.  The  most  oppressive  of  all  was  the 
hunting-average,  which  compelled  the  peasant  to  tread  down 
his  own  crops  while  aiding  his  lord  in  chasing  the  deer.  The 
peasantry  were  also  exposed  to  the  most  unjust,  most  dis- 
gusting, and  extraordinary  dues.  Socage-duty  was,  more- 
over, remissible  on  payment  of  a  certain  sum,  which  was 
enforced  upon  all  unable  or  unwilling  to  perform  it  in  per- 
son. Rents  or  natural  dues  were,  in  course  of  time,  also 
raised.  On  every  parcel  of  land,  every  corner  of  the  house, 
a  new  and  especial  impost,  often  distinguished  by  a  whim- 
sical name,  was  levied.  Each  season  of  the  year,  every 
change  in  the  family  by  marriage  or  death,  an  additional 
building,  etc.,  enriched  the  manorial  lord.  Besides  the  gift 
of  the  best  head  of  the  cattle,  the  best  piece  of  furniture,  or 
the  best  dress  of  the  deceased  peasant,  to  his  lord,  the  Lan- 
demium,  generally  ten  per  cent  on  the  real  value  of  the 
property,  had  to  be  paid  into  his  coffers  on  its  transition  into 
other  hands,  besides  innumerable  other  chance  dues.  Then 
came  a  number  of  new  punishments  and  lines.  Air  and 
water,  forest  and  field,  were  originally  free  to  all.  Villages 
were  more  scattered,  the  country  more  open,  the  nobles  more 
contented  and  generally  absent;  but,  by  degrees,  the  lord  of 
the  manor  insisted  on  the  sole  enjoyment  of  the  chase,  the 
stream,  the  forest,  and  the  field,  and  inflicted  the  most  ter- 
rible punishments  on  the  serf  who  ventured  to  infringe  his 
self-raised  prerogative.  These  punishments  were  also  profit- 
able, being  remittable  by  fine. 

In  the  Catholic  states,  the  cultivation  of  the  land  in  large 


INTERNAL    STATE    DURING    REFORMATION        1101 

tracts,  copyholds,  was  still  continued;  but  in  the  Protestant 
provinces,  the  subdivision  of  property  became  general;  the 
country  people  in  the  former  were,  consequently,  more  in- 
clined to  idleness  and  amusement,  those  of  the  latter  to 
industry  and  care.  The  greatest  evil  was  the  general  de- 
mand for  money,  which  was  made  to  replace  personal  ser- 
vice and  payment  in  kind,  and  the  peasant  was  constrained 
to  borrow  money  and  to  pay  interest,  which  was  shamelessly 
raised  and  prolonged,  for  it,  in  kind.  This  system  of  exac- 
tion was,  for  instance,  pursued  by  the  Swiss  burghers  toward 
their  bondmen. 

The  peasant,  miserably  fed  and  lodged,  daily  overworked, 
physically  and  mentally  degraded,  gradually  lost  his  ancient 
health  and  vigor.  The  gigantic  frame  of  the  free-born  Ger- 
man withered  beneath  the  hopeless  unpaid  toil  of  the  soc- 
ager. The  peasantry  had,  after  a  bloody  contest,  been 
disarmed.  Instead  of,  as  of  yore,  following  their  lord  to 
the  field,  they  were  chained  like  oxen  to  the  plow,  and, 
degraded  and  despised,  vegetated  in  ignorance  and  want. 
In  the  Protestant  states,  a  few  village  schools  were  estab- 
lished, but  it  was  long  before  reading  and  writing  became 
general  among  the  lower  classes;  nor  did  they  derive  mucb 
benefit  from  the  instruction  they  received,  as  it  merely  con- 
sisted of  religious  precepts,  which,  although  calculated  to 
console  the  wretched  peasant  and  to  fortify  his  patience, 
neither  improved  nor  altered  his  oppressed  condition.  Still, 
deeply  as  the  peasant  had  fallen,  his  original  nature  was  not 
utterly  perverted,  and  the  further  he  was  removed  from  the 
higher  classes,  the  less  was  he  tainted  with  their  despicable 
vices.  Nor  had  his  natural  humor  and  good  sense,  his  con- 
sciousness of  higher  worth,  entirely  quitted  him.  In  the 
lowly  hut  were  preserved  those  fine  popular  legends,  thrown 
aside  by  the  higher  classes  for  awkward  imitations  of  the 
foreigner.  It  was  there  that  the  memory  of  the  wondrous 
days  of  yore  still  lived,  that  ideas  both  lovely  and  sublime 
were  understood  and  cherished.  Far  away  and  forgotten  by 
self-styled  civilization,  legendary  lore  took  refuge  among 


1102  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

the  poor  and  untaught  children  of  nature.  But,  wherever 
oppression  and  contempt  roused  the  bitter  feelings  of  the 
boor,  they  found  vent  in  mocking  proverbs,  popular  ballads, 
and,  more  than  all,  in  coarse  but  cutting  jests. 

CCXVI.    The  Erudition  oj  the   Universities 

While  the  people  were  thus  enslaved  by  ignorance,  learn- 
ing made  rapid  strides  at  the  universities,  where  the  reputa- 
tion of  the  scholars  gradually  rose  as  that  of  the  churchmen 
sank;  but  the  literati,  after  freeing  themselves  from  the 
shackles  of  the  Roman  hierarchy,  and,  under  Luther's  pow- 
erful guidance,  for  some  time  forwarding  the  popular  inter- 
ests of  Germany,  ere  long  forsook  their  national  literature 
for  the  exclusive  study  of  the  classics  and  introduced  much 
that  was  heterogeneous  into  the  literature  of  Germany. 

The  learned  class,  which  provided  servants  for  the  state 
and  for  the  church,  was  formed  in  the  universities,  which, 
since  the  Reformation,  had  increased  in  number  and  had 
been  newly  constituted. 

The  German  universities  were  founded  at  the  following 
periods:  Prague,  1348;  Vienna,  1365;  Heidelberg,  1387; 
Cologne,  1388;  Erfurt,  1392;  Leipzig,  1409;  Rostock,  1419; 
Lou  vain,  1426;  Griefswald,  1456;  Freiburg  in  the  Breisgau, 
1457;  Treves,  1472;  Ingolstadt,  1472;  Tubingen  and  May- 
ence,  1477;  Wittenberg,  1502;  Frankfort  on  the  Oder,  1506; 
Marburg,  1527;  Konigsberg,  1544;  Dillingen,  1549;  Jena, 
1558;  Leyden,  1575;  Helmstaedt,  1576;  Altorf,  1578;  Olmutz, 
1581;  Wurzburg,  1582;  Franecker,  1585;  Graetz,  1586;  Gies- 
sen,  1607;  Groningen,  1614;  Paderborn,  1615;  Rinteln  and 
Strasburg,  1621;  Salzburg,  1623;  Osnabruck,  1630;  Utrecht, 
1634;  Linz,  1636;  Bamberg,  1648.  The  Catholic  universities 
were,  previously  to  the  Reformation,  principally  under  the 
direction  of  the  Franciscans  and  Dominicans,  and,  subse- 
quently to  that  period,  under  that  of  the  Jesuits,  all  of 
whom  were  equally  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  the  Roman 
hierarchy.    The  Protestant  universities  were  at  first  directed 


INTERNAL   STATE    DURING    REFORMATION        1103 

by  the  Reformed  clergy;  at  a  later  period,  by  the  lawyers 
and  court  counsellors,  in  the  spirit  of  Roman  law  and  modern 
monarchy. 

The  German  universities  underwent  a  radical  change 
immediately  after  the  great  catastrophe  at  Prague  in  the 
time  of  the  Hussites.  The  professors  and  scholars,  subdi- 
vided according  to  nations,  no  longer  formed  free  republics 
as  heretofore;  the  professors  were  paid  by  the  government, 
and  the  students  were  divided,  not  according  to  nations,  but 
according  to  faculties  and  bursa.  Bursa  (Boerse)  were  insti- 
tutions for  the  maintenance  of  the  students,  who  were  thence 
termed  Burschen.  There  were  professor  and  burgher  Bursa; 
the  former  of  which  looked  down  upon  the  latter  and  ill- 
treated  them.  The  fresh  students  were  also  dreadfully  abused 
by  those  of  longer  standing.  These  Bursa  were  put  an  end 
to  by  the  free  spirit  of  the  Reformation,  but  the  roughness 
and  brutality  inherent  in  them  was  imitated  in  the  clubs, 
into  which  the  students  were  again  divided  according  to  the 
country  to  which  they  belonged,  a  resuscitation  of  the  an- 
cient division  according  to  nations,  and  also  in  the  horrid 
Pennal  system.  In  1661,  John  George  II.  of  Saxony  was 
compelled  formally  to  prohibit  the  robbery  of  the  younger 
students,  the  Pennales,  by  the  elder  ones,  the  Schorists,  who 
deprived  them  of  their  good  clothes  and  gave  them  rags  in 
return,  obliged  them  to  clean  their  shoes,  etc. 

Before  the  Reformation,  scholasticism  in  theology,  law. 
and  grammar  was  chiefly  taught  at  the  universities.  Cavils, 
poverty  of  idea,  verbosity,  dialectic  controversy  were  fos- 
tered; science  was  but  little  studied.  The  pure  conception 
of  the  Virgin  formed,  before  the  Reformation,  the  principal 
subject  oi  controversy  between  the  theologians  of  all  the  uni 
versities,  and  was  for  a  whole  century  disputed  with  great 
subtlety  and  bitterness  in  controversial  writings  and  in  dis- 
courses in  learned  assemblies.  The  principal  controversy  be- 
tween the  profane  masters  concerned  the  casus  vocativus, 
whether  it  was  a  positio  or  a  suppositio,  and  an  important 
congress  was  convoked  at  Heidelberg  for  the  purpose  of  do- 


1104  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

ciding  the  dispute.  This  scholastic  spirit  unfortunately  also 
animated  the  Reformers,  and,  as  the  enthusiasm  that  pre- 
vailed during  Luther's  time  disappeared,  the  divinity  of  the 
Protestant  universities  became  as  strongly  impregnated  with 
sophistry  and  cavilling  as  that  of  the  Papists  had  formerly 
been.  To  these  were  added  the  scholasticism  of  the  lawyers, 
the  cavils  of  the  commentators  on  the  Roman  law,  who  in- 
dustriously sought  to  uproot  all  German  customs,  to  annihi- 
late German  spirit  and  the  poor  remains  of  German  liberty, 
by  setting  out  with  the  principle  of  the  worst  period  of  the 
Roman  empire,  "that  the  will  of  the  sovereign  was  the 
source  of  all  law."  The  most  distinguished  of  the  Roman- 
ists in  the  sixteenth  century  were  Holoander,  Zasius,  flen- 
ning  von  Gode  or  the  monarcha  juris.  As  early  as  the  fif- 
teenth century,  Peter  von  Andlau,  in  a  work  on  the  German 
empire,  attempted  to  reduce  its  constitution  to  a  system,  in 
which  he  was  followed,  in  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  by  Arumasus  of  Jena.  Chemnitz  (Hippolytus  of 
Lapide),  however,  acquired  the  highest  repute  by  his  work 
on  the  Peace  of  Westphalia,  in  which  he  condemned  the 
unity  of  Germany  and  lauded  her  subdivision  under  petty 
princes  and  foreign  brigands.  Politics  were  studied  in  Hol- 
land, where  a  more  liberal  spirit  reigned,  with  far  greater 
assiduity  than  in  the  rest  of  Germany.  Hugo  Grotius,  by 
his  work  de  Jure  Belli  et  Pacis,  laid  the  foundation  to  a 
law  of  nations,  based  on  natural  right,  reason,  morality, 
and  Christianity. 

Grammar,  hitherto  a  dry  and  unintellectual  study,  was 
animated  with  fresh  life.  The  study  of  the  dead  languages 
rendered  the  Germans  familiar  with  the  poets,  philosophers, 
and  historians  of  Greece,  and  the  dark  shades  of  scholastic 
ignorance  faded  before  the  rising  light  of  knowledge.  The 
study  of  the  humanities  had  greatly  aided  the  Reformation 
and  was  therefore  naturally  carried  on  to  a  still  greater  ex- 
tent in  the  Protestant  universities.  The  founders  of  the  first 
academies,  in  which  the  learned  languages  and  humanities 
were  taught,  were  Rudolf  Agncola,  of  whom  mention   has 


INTERNAL    STATE    DURING    REFORMATION        1105 

already  been  made,  at  Heidelberg,  Conrad  Celtes,  Wimphel- 
ing,  Lange  at  Erfurt,  Hegius;  the  most  celebrated  professors 
were  Reuchlin  and  Erasmus;  their  most  talented  advocate 
was  Ulric  von  Hutten;  their  intermediator  with  Luther's 
He  formation,  Philip  Melancthon.  In  the  course  of  the  six- 
teenth century,  there  appeared  numbers  of  distinguished 
professors  of  Greek  and  Latin,  grammarians,  editors  to  the 
ancient  authors,  critics,  etc.,  of  whom  the  following  acquired 
the  greatest  note:  Beatus  Rhenanus,  Conrad  Gessner,  Joa- 
chim Camerarius,  Eoban  Hessus,  Gruterus,  Crusius,  Her- 
mann von  der  Busch,  the  witty  Bebel  of  Tubingen,  the  still 
wittier  Taubmann  of  Wittenberg,  the  unfortunate  Frischlin, 
Scioppius  of  the  Pfalz,  the  Dutchman,  Justus  Lipsius,  a 
second  Erasmus  in  wit  and  learning,  Meursius,  Puteanus, 
Scaliger,  Heinsius,  Gerard  Vossius,  Willibald  Pirkheimer, 
the  learned  citizen  of  Nuremberg,  and  Peutinger  of  Augs- 
burg, Thomas  von  Rehdiger,  a  wealthy  Silesian  nobleman, 
the  collector  of  a  valuable  library,  etc.  It  was  certainly 
strange  for  imagination  to  digress  so  suddenly  from  the  pres- 
ent in  order  to  bury  itself  in  the  records  of  the  past,  but  the 
contrast  was  natural.  Who  would  not  have  sighed  for  deliv- 
erance from  the  theological  nonsense  at  that  time  occupying 
the  whole  attention  of  the  learned  world  ?  And  what  conso- 
lation could  the  earlier  histories  of  Germany,  which  merely 
recorded  the  triumphs  of  Papacy,  afford  ?  It  was  at  that 
period  pardonable  for  the  learned  to  fly  for  relief  to  the  beau- 
tiful creations  of  the  ancient  Greeks,  and,  if  this  inclination 
has  been  carried  to  an  extreme,  if  the  lovers  of  classical  an- 
tiquity have  neglected  to  improve  their  mother  tongue,  this 
is  but  a  natural  and  a  temporary  consequence  of  the  enthusi- 
asm with  which  the  study  of  the  ancients  was  pursued.  The 
German  enthusiast  is  apt  to  believe  a  useful  thing  the  only 
one  necessary,  and,  while  straining  his  energies  in  one  direc- 
tion, to  be  blind  to  aught  else;  but,  while  mentally  trans- 
ported to  the  times  of  ancient  Greece  and  Rome,  he  involun- 
tarily formed  himself  on  the  models  they  presented. 

Natural  philosophy  now  came  into  repute.     During  the 


1106  THE    HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

Catholic  Middle  Ages,  every  subject  had  been  treated  from 
a  spiritual  or  religious  point  of  view.  Nature  had  been  de- 
spised as  an  instrument  of  sin.  Heaven  was  the  Christian's 
highest  aim,  and  his  sojourn  upon  earth  was  to  be  spent  in 
self-denial,  celibacy,  fasting,  in  mental  and  physical  abase- 
ment. This  sprang  from  the  antithesis  originally  offered  by 
Christianity  to  the  heathen  adoration  of  nature,  and  the  in- 
quirer into  nature  was  consequently  regarded  as  a  student 
of  the  black  art. 

At  Salerno  in  Italy  medicine  had  been  studied  on  the 
Mahometan  principle,  but  had  been  rendered  incapable  of 
being  improved  by  experience  by  its  accommodation  to  the 
general  scholastic  notions.  In  the  commencement  of  the  fif- 
teenth century,  an  Alsatian  monk,  Basilius  Valentinus,  in- 
spired by  his  own  genius,  began,  as  he  eloquently  expressed 
himself,  "to  analyze  nature."  His  first  discoveries  in  chem- 
istry formed  a  stepping-stone  for  all  others.  In  this  century, 
also  Conrad  von  Megenberg,  deacon  of  Ratisbon,  wrote  a 
treatise  on  the  nature  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  on  that  of  the 
earth,  stones,  plants,  animals,  and  mankind.  His  notions 
were,  it  is  true,  extremely  imperfect.  This  work  passed 
through  six  editions  between  1475  and  1499. 

Almost  a  century,  however,  elapsed  before  the  humanists 
succeeded  in  forming  physicians  on  the  model  of  the  ancient 
Greeks  and  Romans,  of  Hippocrates  and  Galen,  in  banish- 
ing the  old  scholastic  dogmas  and  in  taking  experience  as  a 
guide.  Koch  of  Basel,  Winther  of  Andernach,  Hagenbuch, 
Fuchs,  Lange,  Zwinger,  and  numerous  others  distinguished 
themselves  as  practitioners,  as  well  as  translators  of  the 
ancients  and  as  commentators.  Conrad  Gessner,  in  1565, 
was  the  most  noted  among  the  humanists  and  naturalists. 
Botany  and  anatomy  were  also  studied.  Tabernaemontanus 
wrote  a  celebrated  botanical  work  in  the  fifteenth  century. 
In  1491  appeared  the  botanical  work  of  John  von  Cube  of 
Mayence,  adorned  with  woodcuts;  and  Ketham  made  ana- 
tomical woodcuts  for  Wolfgang,  prince  of  Anhalt.  Werner 
Rolfing,  a  celebrated  anatomist,  was  born  in  1599,  at  Hamburg. 


INTERNAL   STATE   DURING    REFORMATION        1107 

Theophrastus  Paracelsus'  opened  a  completely  new  path 
in  the  sixteenth  century.  The  system  of  this  great  physician 
and  philosopher  was  as  far  removed  from  that  of  the  human- 
ists, the  Hippocratic  physicians,  as  from  that  of  the  ancient 
scholastics.  He  was  taught  by  self-gained  experience,  not 
by  ancient  assertions.  The  success  of  his  cures,  his  simpli- 
fication of  medicaments,  and  his  abolition  of  innumerable 
abuses  gained  him  immense  popularity  during  his  continual 
journeys  through  Germany,  and,  notwithstanding  the  opposi- 
tion of  the  older  physicians,  numbers  of  the  medical  students 
followed  in  his  steps.  He  completely  upset  the  prevalent 
system  of  natural  philosophy  and  reduced  the  four  elements 
hitherto  accepted,  to  three,  corresponding  with  the  three 
primitive  elements  in  chemistry,  mercurius,  sulphur,  and 
sal,  so  termed  after  the  productions  most  nearly  resembling 
them,  quicksilver,  brimstone,  and  salt.  It  was  according  to 
this  theory  that  he  divided  the  whole  of  the  natural  world, 
and,  regarding  man  as  an  epitome  (microcosm)  of  the  uni- 
verse (macrocosm),  reduced  medicine  to  a  sympathetic  and 
antipathetic  system.  Everything  in  the  universe,  according 
to  him,  affected  man  either  mentally,  spiritually,  or  physi- 
cally; consequently,  the  great  study  of  the  physician  was 
the  detection  of  whatever  was  injurious  or  beneficial  in  its 
effect  in  every  case.  Imperfect  as  his  theory  was,  it  greatly 
advanced  the  study  and  practice  of  medicine  by  promoting 
the  comparative  study  of  nature,  by  simplifying  medicaments 
and  by  laying  down  as  a  general  rule  the  choice  of  the  rem- 
edy according  to  the  symptoms  of  the  disease.  Art  was  at 
that  period  still  so  completely  in  her  infancy  that  Paracelsus 
was  led  from  a  belief  in  the  sympathetic  affinity  pervading 
all  nature  to  ascribe  a  corresponding  quality  to  the  stars; 
and  one  of  his  pupils,  Crollius,  supposed  the  external  resem- 
blance between  the  remedy  and  the  symptoms  of  the  disease 
to  be  a  sign  of  their  internal  correspondence,  and  attempted, 

1  Philip  Aureolus  Theophrastus  Paracelsus  Bombastus  ab  Hohenheim,  born 
at  Kinsiedelu,  in  Switzerland.  His  family  came  from  Hohenheim,  near  Stutt- 
gard. 


1108  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

for  instance,  to  cure  the  jaundice  with  saffron,  diseases  of 
the  brain  with  poppy  buds,  etc.  These  errors  were,  however, 
founded  upon  truth,  and,  even  at  the  present  day,  Paracelsus 
is  allowed  by  the  faculty  to  have  greatly  promoted  science 
by  his  introduction  of  the  use  of  baths,  mercury,  etc. ;  much 
of  his  system  is  still  irrefutable,  and  many  of  his  remedies 
are  still  in  general  use.  He  died  in  1541,  at  Salzburg,  and 
during  the  raging  of  the  cholera,  in  the  present  century,  the 
people  went  in  crowds  to  pray  at  his  grave.  The  most  cele- 
brated among  his  numerous  pupils  was  Thurneiser  of  Basel, 
who  was  born  in  1530.  He  was  one  of  the  most  enter- 
prising spirits  of  the  age,  began  life  as  a  soldier,  and  was  in 
turn  a  miner,  a  great  traveller,  private  physician  to  John 
George,  elector  of  Brandenburg,  treasurer  to  several  princes, 
and,  at  the  same  time,  financier,  alchemist,  physician,  printer, 
and  engraver  in  wood.  He  first  brought  the  calendar,  adorned 
with  woodcuts,  into  general  use.  After  accumulating  an 
enormous  fortune,  he  was  seized  with  home-sickness  and 
returned  to  Basel,  where  he  was  accused  of  practicing  the 
black  art  and  only  escaped  the  stake  by  the  sacrifice  of  the 
whole  of  his  property  and  by  a  hasty  flight  into  Italy.  He 
died  (1595)  in  a  monastery  at  Cologne.  Erast  of  Heidelberg 
was  Paracelsus' s  most  noted  opponent. 

The  followers  of  Paracelsus,  undeterred  by  opposition, 
pursued  his  system  throughout  the  whole  of  the  sixteenth 
and  part  of  the  seventeenth  centuries,  gaining  knowledge  by 
their  own  experience;  for  instance,  Crato  von  Kraftheim, 
Schenk  von  Grafenberg,  Plater,  the  Dutchmen,  Foreest  and 
Fyres,  the  great  anatomist,  Vesalius  of  Brussels,  the  first 
surgeons  of  note,  Braunschweig  and  Wurz,  the  first  great 
oculist  Bartisch,  the  first  accoucheur,  Rcesslin.  Wyerus  ren- 
dered great  service  to  his  age  by  his  philanthropical  work 
against  the  belief  in  the  existence  of  witches.  George  Agric- 
ola  was  the  first  mineralogist  in  Saxony,  where  the  mines 
were  industriously  worked.  John  von  Gmunden  gained 
great  repute  at  Vienna  as  an  astronomer;  his  pupils,  Peur- 
bach  and  Regiomontanus,  became  equally  celebrated.     In 


INTERNAL   STATE   DURING    REFORMATION        1109 

the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century,  Fabricius  of  East 
Friesland  discovered  the  spots  in  the  sun;  Simon  Mayer,  the 
satellites  of  Jupiter;  but  the  great  Kepler,  a  Swabian  in 
the  service  of  the  emperor  Rudolph  II.,  gained  undying 
fame.  After  the  discovery  of  the  revolution  of  the  earth 
with  all  the  other  planets  around  the  sun,  in  1545,  by  the 
Pole,  Copernicus,  Kepler  discovered  the  laws,  known  by  his 
name,  regulating  the  distances  between  the  planets,  and  their 
course.  He  also  wrote  the  "Harmony  of  the  Universe,"  in 
which  he  reduced  numbers,  tones,  and  forms  to  a  universal 
law.  The  merit  of  this  extraordinary  man  was  but  ill-appre- 
ciated by  his  contemporaries.  Mathematics  and  mechanics 
were  studied  with  great  success  by  Regiomontanus  in  the 
fifteenth  century,  and  by  the  celebrated  painter,  Diirer. 
These  sciences  were  afterward  chiefly  promoted  by  the  Jes- 
uits, who  sought  by  their  means  to  replace  the  deficiency 
in  studies  demanding  freedom  of  thought.  In  the  sixteenth 
century,  Adam  Riese  of  Annaberg  in  Saxony  wrote  a  gen- 
eral account- book  for  the  people,  which  was  extensively 
circulated. 

The  era  of  the  Reformation  was  remarkable  for  discover- 
ies and  inventions.  The  invention  of  gunpowder  had  been 
discovered  shortly  before;  in  the  fifteenth  century,  printing 
was  discovered;  in  the  sixteenth,  clocks  were  invented.  In 
Nuremberg,  thousands  of  watches,  called  Nuremberg  eggs, 
were  made  after  Peter  Hele's  invention.  Homelius  con- 
structed a  curious  astronomical  clock  for  the  emperor, 
Charles  V.  In  1540,  the  surveyor's  table  was  invented  by 
Gemma.  In  1590,  the  telescope  and  microscope  were  in- 
vented by  Zacharias  Jansen;  and,  in  the  seventeenth  cent- 
ury, the  laterna  magica  by  Father  Kircher.  The  first  spin- 
ning-wheel was  made  in  Brunswick,  in  1530,  by  Master 
Jurgen. 


1110  THE    HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 


CCXVII.    The  Dark  Sciences— Superstition 

The  power  of  Satan  upon  earth  had  long  been  an  article 
of  faith,  but  it  was  not  until  the  Reformation  that  it  became 
the  general  belief,  and  that  attempts  were  made  to  exorcise 
spirits  and  to  make  use  of  demoniacal  powers  for  the  attain- 
ment of  human  aims.  The  studies  of  the  humanists  had  led 
to  a  nearer  acquaintance  with  the  magic  of  the  ancients  and 
had  produced  a  sort  of  partiality  for  ancient  heathen  prac- 
tices. The  principal  source  to  these  dark  desires,  however, 
lay  in  the  Reformation.  The  bolt  launched  by  Luther 
against  St.  Peter's  chair  at  Rome  drove  the  faith  of  the 
times  into  two  opposite  extremes;  the  soldier  and  the  savant 
confessed  the  infidelity  of  the  heathen  philosopher,  and  the 
mass  of  the  people  was  enslaved  by  the  grossest  superstition. 
The  two  extremes,  nevertheless,  met.  The  devil,  the  powers 
of  darkness,  the  horror  of  the  one,  were  diligently  sought 
for  by  the  other.  There  were  some  bold  spirits,  who,  firmly 
persuaded  of  the  power  of  Satan,  instead  of  flying  from, 
bound  themselves  to  him  for  the  purpose  of  attaining  power, 
wealth,  etc.,  or  of  guarding  themselves  against  evil.  Sol- 
diers, consequently,  believed  in  the  Passau  art,  which  was 
supposed  to  render  them  invulnerable,  in  the  power  of  free- 
bullets,  which  never  missed  their  aim,  in  the  virtue  of  man- 
dragore,  spirits  in  crystal,  the  lucky  penny,  love-potions, 
etc.,  etc. — The  foolhardy  spirit  which  led  the  lawless  soldier 
and  the  lost  female  to  invoke  the  powers  of  hell  for  the  at- 
tainment of  some  low  and  worldly  aim  took  a  higher  direc- 
tion among  the  savants,  and  the  well-known  tale  of  Doctor 
Faust  is  founded  upon  a  general  fact.  There  were,  in  those 
wild  times,  speculative  minds,  which,  rejecting  the  ancient 
belief  in  revelation,  sought  to  resolve  their  doubts,  not  indi- 
rectly, by  application  to  the  Holy  Scriptures,  but  directly, 
by  intercourse  with  the  world  of  spirits  and  with  nature,  as, 
for  instance,  Bacon  of  Verulam  in  England,  and  Agrippa  of 


INTERNAL   STATE   DURING    REFORMATION        1111 

Nettesheim  in  Germany.  Although  free  from  the  vulgar 
belief  in  the  devil,  they  hoped  by  means  of  the  correspond- 
ence between  microcosm,  the  little  world  within  man,  and 
macrocosm,  the  great  universe,  nature  and  the  world  of 
spirits,  to  find  out,  either  by  raising  spirits  or  by  the  discov- 
ery of  the  secret  powers  and  primitive  elements  of  nature, 
the  secrets  of  the  universe.  It  was  from  attempts  of  this 
nature,  which  gave  birth  to  the  most  extravagant  miscon- 
ceptions on  the  part  of  the  people,  which  were  countenanced 
by  the  clergy,  whose  credit  had  fallen,  that  the  legend  of 
Faust  arose,  in  which  the  hatred  of  the  monks  against  the 
inventor  of  printing  is  evidently  mixed  up,  that  art  having 
been  also  ascribed  by  them  to  the  devil. 

As  the  study  of  natural  philosophy  advanced,  the  devil 
and  his  agents  were  discarded,  although  the  hope  of  finding 
out  the  secret  of  their  original  connection  with  external  nat- 
ure by  the  discovery  of  natural  magic,  of  making  gold,  and 
of  the  universal  elixir,  still  prevailed.  Alchemy,  or  the  art 
of  making  gold,  was  exercised  as  early  as  the  commence- 
ment of  the  fifteenth  century  by  some  pupils  of  Basilius  Val- 
entinus,  and  avarice  cherished  the  hope  of  making  gold  from 
a  primitive  matter,  the  philosopher's  stone,  whence  all  other 
matters  were  derived,  which  had  been  sought  for  by  Basilius. 
Barbara,  the  infamous  consort  of  the  emperor  Sigmund,  was 
the  first  who  retained  a  court-alchemist,  John  von  Laaz,  in 
her  service.  Her  example  was  followed  at  Baireuth  by  Al- 
bert Achilles,  and  by  John,  elector  of  Brandenburg,  who,  in 
the  hope  of  discovering  the  primitive  matters  of  which  gold 
was  composed,  melted  their  wealth  in  the  crucible.  Alchemy 
became  the  rage.  Almost  every  court  had  its  alchemist. 
Hans  von  Doernberg  reigned  at  the  conclusion  of  the  fif- 
teenth century  with  uncontrolled  power  over  Hesse,  under 
the  Landgrave  Henry  and  his  son  William.  The  matter 
even  attracted  the  attention  of  the  learned,  of  the  celebrated 
historical  commentator  Trithemius,  of  the  philosopher  Agrip- 
pa  von  Nettesheim,  and  of  Theophrastus  Paracelsus,  who 
sought,  not  gold,  but  the  philosopher's  stone.     This  art  was 


1112  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

rendered  general  throughout  Germany  by  the  emperor,  Eu- 
dolph  II.,  who  was  termed  the  prince  of  alchemists.  The 
adepts  flocked  to  his  court,  and  even  princes  vied  with  each 
other  in  the  search.  Augustus,  elector  of  Saxony,  occupied 
his  whole  life  with  this  futile  art;  Christian  II.  displayed 
equal  zeal  and  sentenced  the  unfortunate  Setomus,  who  was 
generally  believed  by  his  contemporaries  to  possess  the  secret, 
to  the  wheel.  Setonius's  sole  confidant,  Sendivogius,  was, 
like  his  master,  chased  from  one  court  to  another.  He  was 
thrown  into  prison  by  Frederick,  duke  of  Wurtemberg;  all 
the  princes  wanted  gold,  and  the  charlatans  were  no  longer 
secure  of  their  lives.  The  rage  for  discovering  this  secret 
was  so  excessive  that  a  certain  potter  seriously  asserted  that 
gold  could  be  extracted  from  the  Jews;  that  the  bodies  of 
twenty-four  Jews,  reduced  to  ashes,  would  produce  one 
ounce  of  gold.  Thomas  Liber,  in  1583,  first  strenuously 
opposed  the  prevailing  superstition.  Societies  of  alchemists 
were  also  naturally  formed,  either  for  the  thing  itself  or  for 
appearance'  sake,  the  secret  forming  an  irresistible  attrac- 
tion; and  a  mystical  work  was  published,  which  set  forth 
that  the  order  of  the  Golden  Fleece,  instituted  by  Philip  of 
Burgundy,  had  originally  the  object  and  the  symbols  of  al- 
chemy. In  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century,  Valen- 
tin Andrea  founded,  in  Swabia,  the  order  of  the  Kosicrucians, 
who  propagated  the  practices  of  the  adepts  and  the  mystical 
ideas  of  Paracelsus.  The  hope  of  discovering  the  universal 
medicine  and  the  elixir  of  life  was  confined  to  some  of  the 
physicians  of  the  time;  the  general  thirst  was  more  for  gold 
than  for  prolongation  of  life.  It  was  asserted  of  the  adept 
Trautmannsdorf,  1609,  that  he  had  prolonged  his  existence 
one  hundred  and  forty-seven  years. 

Astrology  was,  equally  with  alchemy,  encouraged  by  +,he 
great  and  powerful.  Rudolph  II.  and  Wallenstein  were  its 
principal  patrons.  Paracelsus  was  firmly  persuaded  of  the 
influence  exercised  by  the  stars  on  man's  every  action;  nor 
was  Kepler  free  from  a  similar  superstition,  which  had,  how- 
ever, the  good  result  of  promoting  his  study  of  astronomy 


INTERNAL    STATE    DURING    REFORMATION        1113 

and  of  leading  to  scientific  investigation,  more  particularly 
since  the  invention  of  the  telescope  in  Holland  in  1600. 

Chiromancy,  or  the  presaging  of  fate  from  the  lines  of 
the  hand,  and  sympathetic  cure  were  the  most  celebrated 
among  the  other  dark  sciences.  The  investigation  of  the 
lines  of  the  hand,  which  was  allied  with  that  of  the  physiog- 
nomy and  of  the  general  appearance  of  the  whole  person, 
proves  that  the  adepts  were  possessed  of  an  extraordinary 
quickness  of  perception,  unknown  at  the  present  day;  and 
the  sympathetic  cures  are  so  much  the  more  important,  ow- 
ing to  their  being  a  remains  of  the  ancient  popular  mode  of 
cure  practiced  by  the  heathens,  which  has,  in  our  times,  pro- 
duced the  theory  of  animal  magnetism.  Many  ailments  were 
ascribed  to  the  power  of  Satan,  and  spiritual  measures  were 
resorted  to  for  their  cure,  such  as  exorcism  or  expulsion  of 
the  devil,  amulets,  relics,  etc.  A  peculiar  healing  property 
was  ascribed  to  certain  saints  and  holy  places.  Almost 
every  member  of  the  body  had  its  patron  saint.  Mental 
aberration  was  especially  regarded  as  demoniacal  possession. 
In  1451,  George,  bishop  of  Lausanne,  was  persuaded  of  the 
potency  of  a  spiritual  anathema  for  driving  away  grasshop- 
pers and  mice,  and,  not  long  afterward,  a  bishop  of  Coire 
resorted  to  the  same  means  for  the  riddance  of  cockchafers. 

Ancient  mysticism  was  also  transformed  by  this  novel 
and  fantastical  natural  philosophy.  Nicolas  von  Cusa,  a 
countryman  of  Treves,  formed,  in  1462,  the  transition 
from  scholastic  theosophy  to  natural  philosophy  by  a  mys- 
tic numeration,  a  system  of  the  universe  harmoniously  regu- 
lated by  numbers,  the  principles  of  all  things.  He  was  suc- 
ceeded by  Paracelsus,  who  completed  the  vague  numerical 
system  of  Cusanus  by  declaring  the  principles  divine  efflu- 
ences and  living  powers.  As  all  numbers  proceeded  from 
one,  so  did  the  whole  universe  from  God;  as  all  numbers 
corresponded  with  each  other,  so  did  all  things  in  the  world. 
From  the  unity  of  God  proceeded  the  primitive  powers,  mer- 
curius,  sulphur,  and  sal,  which,  although  separated  into  a 
spiritual  and  an  earthly   sense,    there   as   soul,    mind,    and 

Germany,     Vol.  III. — 9 


1114  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

body,  here  as  water,  air,  and  earth,  nevertheless  corre* 
sponded,  and,  consequently,  there  was  nothing  in  man  that 
had  not  its  great  antitype  in  nature.  Valentin  Weigel  of 
Saxony,  in  1588,  pursued  a  similar  idea  and  founded  an 
extremely  simple  system,  which  was  afterward  improved 
upon  by  Spinoza  and  Schelling,  the  identity  of  the  two  great 
and  universal  antitheses,  of  the  mind  and  body,  of  light  and 
darkness,  of  good  and  bad,  etc.,  which,  ever  externally  at 
war,  were  united  in  God.  The  two  Swabians,  Sebastian 
Frank  and  Grutmann,  the  former  of  whom  was  an  Anabap- 
tist, the  latter  a  Kosicrucian,  and  Khunrath,  whose  mania 
for  mystery  led  him  astray  in  the  cabalistics  of  the  ancient 
Jews,  are  less  clear  and  profound.  In  the  seventeenth 
century,  the  Moravian,  Amos  Comenius,  produced  a  sys- 
tem which  reunited  the  doctrine  of  Weigel  with  that  of 
Paracelsus,  by  an  endeavor  to  unite  the  two  universal  an- 
titheses, body  and  mind,  by  a  third,  light.  He  was  the  first 
who  attributed  great  importance  to  light,  both  outward  and 
inward.  We  also  owe  to  him  an  account  of  an  extremely 
curious  malady,  with  which  a  Bohemian  girl,  Christina 
Poniatovia,  was  visited.  She  was  a  somnambulist  and  had 
visions,  which  he  has  described  with  such  accuracy  as  to 
leave  no  doubt  of  the  coincidence  of  the  symptoms  with 
those  of  modern  magnetism.  The  celebrated  physician,  von 
Helmont,  who  regarded  nature  as  an  effluence  of  spiritual 
powers  and  recognized  a  pure  spiritual  cause  in  all  her 
works,  also  flourished  during  tbe  seventeenth  century. 

Agrippa  von  Nettesheim,  1535,  stands  alone.  The  foe 
of  scholasticism  and  of  theological  controversy,  an  utter 
infidel,  he  hoped  to  attain  to  higher  knowledge  by  means 
of  magic,  and  for  that  purpose  adjured  all  earthly  and  un- 
earthly powers.  During  his  restless  wanderings  over  Eu- 
rope, he  studied  everything,  saw  everything,  took  a  degree 
in  every  faculty,  practiced  theology  at  Paris,  the  law  at 
Metz,  physic  at  Freiburg  in  Switzerland,  became  private 
physician  to  the  queen  of  France,  and  finally  historiographer 
to  Margaret,  stadtholderess  of  the  Netherlands.     He  trav- 


INTERNAL    STATE   DURING    REFORMATION        1115 

elled  over  the  whole  of  Spain,  Italy,  France,  and  England, 
"seeking  rest  and  finding  none,"  and  at  length  published  a 
work  "On  the  Uncertainty  and  Vanity  of  all  Scientific  Be- 
search,"  with  which  he  bade  adieu  to  the  world.  At  an  ear- 
lier period,  when  resting  his  hopes  on  magic,  he  had  written 
a  work  "On  Secret  Philosophy, "  and,  in  spite  of  his  later 
contempt  for  the  world  and  for  all  that  therein  is,  he  left 
another,  entitled  "De  Nobilitate  Sexus  Fceminini." 

Quite  otherwise,  unvisited  by  fortune  or  by  learning, 
without  knowledge  of  the  world,  born  beneath  a  lowly  roof, 
where  he  passed  the  whole  of  his  life,  in  the  obscurity  of  a 
little  town  and  of  a  miserable  occupation,  the  shoemaker  of 
Goerlitz,  Jacob  Bcehme,  1624,  placed  an  implicit  confidence 
in  Heaven  and  found  the  eternal  wisdom  which  the  proud 
Agrippa  had  vainly  sought  for  throughout  the  world.  The 
truths  that  escaped  the  perception  of  the  great  philosopher 
were  clear  as  day  to  his  pure  and  childlike  mind,  which,  al- 
though untaught  and  uncultivated,  was  extraordinarily  pro- 
found and  comprehensive.  Jacob  Bcehme  stands  far  above 
the  rest  of  the  mystics,  all  of  whose  various  systems  he  has, 
in  his  own,  formed  into  a  harmonious  whole.  In  him  meet 
the  three  great  founders  of  mysticism  of  the  twelfth  century, 
for  in  him  are  united  the  heroic  morality,  the  chivalric  self- 
sacrificing  love  of  Hugo  de  St.  Victoire,  the  eternal  harmony 
and  beauty  of  nature  of  Honorius  Augnstodensis,  and  the 
historical  world  of  Kupert  von  Duiz.  He  also  carried  the 
doctrine  of  Paracelsus  still  higher,  by  seeking  God  in  history 
as  well  as  in  nature.  He  was  so  wonderfully  fertile  in  ideas 
that  later  philosophers  have  raised  new  systems  on  mere 
fragments  of  the  one  founded  by  him. 

CCXVIII.    Witchcraft 

The  burning  of  witches  formed  one  of  the  most  remark- 
able features  of  the  age  of  the  Reformation.  It  commenced 
at  an  earlier  period,  but  first  became  a  general  practice  in 
the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries.    The  belief  in  witch- 


1116  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

craft,  universal  before  the  migrations  at  the  worst  period  of 
the  Roman  empire,  had  disappeared  before  the  light  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  was  more  particularly  discouraged  by  the  Ger- 
man wanderers.  Rotharis  the  Longobard,  in  his  legislative 
code,  especially  prohibited  the  trial  of  witches,  witchcraft 
being  impossible.1  Charlemagne  was  equally  enlightened. 
In  1810,  the  belief  in  the  existence  of  witches  was  condemned 
by  the  council  of  Treves,  and  the  nightly  expeditions  of 
witches  was  declared  a  fabulous  invention. a  This  belief 
was  little  general  during  the  Middle  Ages,  but  suddenly 
gained  force  in  the  fifteenth  century. 

Sprenger,  a  notorious  Dominican  inquisitor,  is  accused  of 
having  first  disseminated  this  fearful  superstition  in  Con- 
stance; the  executions  at  the  stake,  until  his  time  of  rare 
occurrence,  becoming  thenceforward  extremely  frequent. 
His  work,  "The  Witches'  Hammer"  (Malleus  Malefica- 
rum),  attracted  general  attention  and  inspired  half  Europe 
with  a  dread  of  witchcraft  hitherto  unknown;  he  also  per- 
secuted witches  on  principle,  and  is  said  to  have  burned  up- 
ward of  a  hundred  old  women.  On  being  bitterly  reproached 
for  his  cruelty,  he  appealed  to  the  pope,  and,  in  1485,  Inno- 
cent VIII. ,  by  a  bull,  affirmed  the  existence  of  witches  and 
the  necessity  of  their  persecution.  It  was  in  vain  that  Sig- 
mund,  archduke  of  the  Tyrol,  caused  a  protest  to  be  written 
by  Ulric  Muller  of  Constance  and  declared  the  belief  in  the 
existence  of  witches  a  mere  superstitious  delusion;  the  voice 
of  the  Dominican,  supported  by  the  authority  of  the  pope, 
was  alone  heeded.  On  the  commencement  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, this  belief  was  recognized  as  a  superstition,  but,  not- 
withstanding, continued  to  spread.  Old  women  were  more 
fanatically  persecuted  as  suspected  witches  by  the  Lutherans 
than  they  had  been  by  the  Inquisition;  the  devil,  in  those 

1  Nullus  prsesumat  aldiam  aut  ancillara  quasi  strigam  aut  mascam  occidere, 
quod  Ohristianis  mentibus  nullatcuus  credendum  est  aut  possibile. 

2  Nulla  mulier  se  nocturnis  horis  equitare  cum  Diana  dea  paganorum  vel 
cum  Herodiana  innuraera  mulierum  multitudine  profiteatur.  Haec  enim 
diemoniaca  est  Music-. — Martene   Thes.   Anecd.    IV. 


INTERNAL    STATE    DURING    REFORMATION        1117 

times  of  terror,  was  present  to  every  imagination  and  was 
portrayed  on  every  wall. 

Malignant  females  were  supposed  to  conclude  a  bond  with 
the  devil,  from  whom  they  learned  the  art  of  raising  storms, 
of  depriving  their  neighbors'  cows  of  their  milk,  of  carrying 
off  their  neighbors'  corn  through  the  air,  of  striking  men  and 
cattle  dead  or  with  sickness  with  the  evil  eye,  of  brewing 
love  potions,  of  awaking  unnatural  hate  or  love,  etc.  Al- 
most all  the  women  accused  of  these  practices  confessed 
under  torture.  Most  of  the  trials  coincide  in  this  point,  that 
they  had  learned  the  art  from  some  other  old  woman,  who 
had  been  taught  by  the  devil  himself  in  the  form  of  a  hand- 
some young  man,  from  whom  she  had  received  the  witches' 
salve,  which,  when  smeared  over  the  whole  body,  gave  her 
the  power  of  flying  up  the  chimney  seated  astride  on  either 
a  broom,  a  spmning-wheel,  a  spit,  a  goat,  or  a  cat,  to  the 
great  witches'  Sabbath,  held  during  Walpurgis  night,  that 
of  the  1st  of  May,  on  the  Blocksberg,  where  all  the  witches 
met,  danced  in  a  misty  circle  back  to  back,  and  worshipped 
a  great  black  goat,  which  at  length  caught  fire  of  itself  and 
was  reduced  to  ashes,  which  were  collected  by  the  witches 
for  magical  purposes,  and  each  one,  remounting  her  steed, 
whisked  home.  From  this  moment  they  were  in  partnership 
with  the  devil,  who  marked  them  as  his  own  and  gave  them 
power  to  work  harm,  but  treated  them  harshly  and  kept 
them  in  abject  poverty.  This  formed  the  substance  of  most 
of  the  depositions.  The  accused  was,  in  some  instances, 
found  lying  stiff  and  apparently  dead  on  the  ground,  and 
confessed,  on  regaining  her  senses,  that  she  had  been,  dur- 
ing her  state  of  torpor,  absent  at  a  witches'  meeting.  This 
proves  a  somnambulistic  state.  It  has,  at  a  more  modern 
period,  been  believed  that  the  whole  tale  had  been  drawn 
by  means  of  torture  from  women,  who,  in  their  agony,  con- 
fessed themselves  guilty  of  anything  laid  to  their  charge; 
much,  nevertheless,  still  remains  that  is  utterly  inexplicable, 
particularly  in  reference  to  the  somnambulistic  visions,  and, 
in  the  face  of  so  many  authentic  proofs,  there  no  longer  ex- 


1118  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

ists  a  doubt  but  that  the  belief  in  all  this  nonsense  was 
general  among  women,  and  that  these  ideas  had  become  an 
epidemy,  a  contagious  mania  among  them.  Was  it  not 
natural  that  at  a  period  when  the  worst  qualities  of  the 
human  heart  had  been  excited  and  had  actually  gained  the 
mastery,  when  men  boldly  cited  the  devil,  that  the  worst 
portion  of  the  female  sex  should  also  give  way  to  horrid  de- 
sires and  imaginations  ? — The  belief  in  the  existence  of 
witches  was,  however,  evidently  the  offspring  of  ancient 
pagan  superstition.  The  night  of  the  1st  of  May  coincides 
with  the  great  festival  of  Spring,  which  was  anciently  sol- 
emnized on  the  mountains.  The  burning  of  the  goat,  the 
symbol  of  fruitfulness,  is  an  ancient  heathen  sacrifice.  The 
transformation  of  the  witches  into  cats  or  wolves  is  also  a 
pagan  notion. 

As  this  superstition  gained  ground,  every  imaginable 
evil,  such  as  scarcity,  damage  done  by  the  weather,  loss  of 
cattle,  sicknesses,  robbery,  losses,  etc.,  was  ascribed  to  the 
witches,  and  suspicion  generally  fell  on  the  oldest  woman  in 
the  neighborhood.  Envy  and  unneighborly  grudge  had  full 
play,  and  revenge  for  suffered,  or  fear  of  future,  evil,  created 
a  bitterness  and  rage  which  at  once  demanded  and  justified 
the  ill-treatment  of  witches.  The  church,  the  state,  and 
public  opinion  were  generally  unanimous  in  declaring  that 
no  means  were  to  be  left  untried  for  the  annihilation  of  the 
power  of  Satan  upon  earth.  The  form  of  trial  was  almost 
everywhere  similar.  The  accused  was  subjected  to  the  or- 
deal; that  is,  her  hair,  even  her  eyebrows,  was  entirely 
shaven  off  in  order  to  discover  the  devil's  mark,  and  woe 
to  her  if  a  mole  or  a  mother's  mark  were  discovered.  It  was 
also  a  popular  notion  that  by  depriving  a  witch  of  her  hair 
the  devil  lost  his  power  over  her.  The  second  and  more 
celebrated  ordeal  consisted  in  tying  the  witch's  ri^ht  thumb 
to  the  left  great  toe,  and  the  left  thumb  to  the  right  toe,  and 
throwing  her  into  the  water.  If  she  swam  it  was  a  certain 
proof  of  her  being  a  witch.  The  third  was  by  weight,  witches 
being  believed  to  be  as  light  as  a  feather.    They  were  accord- 


INTERNAL    STATE    DURING    REFORMATION        1119 

ingly  tried  by  a  certain  measure,  which,  if  it  proved  too 
heavy,  condemned  the  unhappy  woman  to  be  tortured  until 
she  confessed,  which  inevitably  doomed  her  to  the  stake,  fire 
being  the  means  by  which  witchcraft  could  alone  be  totally 
extirpated  and  the  world  be  purified  from  the  incantations 
of  the  devil. 

The  suspicion,  and  the  confession,  wrung  by  torture,  were 
often  equally  ridiculous.  The  most  harmless  things  were  at- 
tributed to  the  power  of  witchcraft.  Luther  once  advised 
that  a  sick  child  of  twelve  years  of  age,  who  had  an  unnatu- 
ral appetite,  should  be  thrown  into  the  Mulda.  At  Freuden- 
stadt,  in  the  Black  Forest,  a  monthly  nurse  was  accused  of 
having  murdered  a  hundred  children  and  of  having  laid 
changelings  in  their  cribs.  At  Frankfort  on  the  Maine,  in 
1536,  a  girl  was  accused  of  being  in  correspondence  with  the 
devil,  by  whom  she  had  been  endowed  with  the  power  of  ex- 
tracting gold  from  walls.  At  Wienerisch-Neustadt,  in  1562, 
the  sexton  was  burned  alive  for  having  boiled  a  child  and 
spread  the  plague  by  mixing  some  of  the  earth  from  the  in- 
fected graves  with  the  broth.  During  the  same  year,  a  hail- 
storm at  Esslingen  caused  a  severe  persecution  of  witches, 
in  which  the  parish  priest  and  the  executioner  discovered 
equal  zeal  and  bade  defiance  to  the  more  humane  and  en- 
lightened town  council.  At  Horb,  in  the  Black  Forest,  in 
1578,  nine  women  were  sentenced  to  the  stake  in  consequence 
of  a  hailstorm.  At  Quedlinburg,  in  1589,  a  hundred  and 
thirty-three  witches  were  burned  in  one  day  for  having 
danced  on  the  Blocksberg  and  for  having  emptied  the  cel- 
lars of  fourteen  of  the  wealthiest  people  in  the  neighborhood 
of  their  wine  on  the  occasion:  all  were  put  to  death  except 
four  of  the  most  beautiful,  whom  the  devil,  always  in  the 
shape  of  a  handsome  young  man,  is  said  to  have  carried 
away.  At  Spandau,  in  1595,  a  great  number  of  people  were 
possessed,  from  having  picked  up  gold,  rings,  buttons,  hemp, 
etc.,  dropped  by  the  devil  in  the  streets.  At  Naumburg  on 
the  Saal,  in  1604,  a  witch  was  burned  for  depriving  an  ab- 
sent person  of  one  of  his  eyes  by  magic.     At  Hildesheim,  in 


1120  THE    HISTORY    OF    GERMANY 

1615,  a  boy  suffered  the  same  death  for  having  transformed 
himself  into  a  cat.  At  Strasburg,  in  1633,  a  boy  was  also 
burned  for  carrying  letters  by  night  to  the  Jesuits  in  a  car- 
riage drawn  by  six  cats.  At  Solothurn,  in  1649,  a  woman 
was  sent  to  the  stake  for  having  ridden  on  a  wolf  through 
the  forest.  In  1725,  a  reward  of  five  florins  was  offered  at 
Hechingen  to  the  captor  of  a  cobold,  a  nix,  etc. 

Neither  old  age  nor  tender  youth  escaped.  At  Wolfen- 
buttel,  in  1591,  a  woman  a  hundred  and  six  years  of  age 
was  burned ;  in  Augsburg,  in  1688,  a  girl  aged  twenty,  who 
was  accused  of  having  practiced  magic  since  her  sixth  year; 
and,  in  1694,  a  woman  aged  eighty-four,  since  her  tenth. 
These  accusations  were  generally  made  for  the  purpose  of 
gain,  either  by  confiscation  of  property  or  by  perquisites. 
The  trial  of  witches  was  equally  profitable  to  the  judge,  the 
advocate,  and  the  executioner.  A  deacon  of  Mayence  caused 
upward  of  three  hundred  people  in  the  villages  of  Crotzen- 
burg  and  Burgel  to  be  sent  to  the  stake  on  a  charge  of  witch- 
craft for  no  other  purpose  than  that  of  adding  their  property 
to  his  cathedral.  Executions  in  the  mass  were  of  frequent 
occurrence.  Julius  of  Brunswick  boasted  of  having  planted 
a  whole  forest  of  stakes  near  Wolfenbuttel,  for  the  execu- 
tion of  witches.  John,  archbishop  of  Treves,  sentenced  the 
women  in  such  numbers  to  the  stake,  in  1585,  that  in  two 
districts  but  two  remained;  in  1589,  he  condemned  Flade, 
the  rector  of  the  university  of  Treves,  as  a  sorcerer,  and,  in 
1593,  thirty  witches  at  Montabaur.  Adolf,  bishop  of  Augs- 
burg, in  1627,  sentenced  forty-two  women  to  be  burned  on 
one  occasion,  and,  during  the  whole  of  his  government,  sent 
two  hundred  and  nineteen  witches  and  wizards,  among  which 
were  four  canons,  eight  vicars,  one  doctor,  eighteen  little 
schoolboys,  a  blind  girl,  another  girl  nine  years  of  age,  with 
her  infant  sister,  to  the  stake.  The  bishop  of  Bamberg  con- 
demned six  hundred  witches,  the  archbishop  of  Salzburg 
ninety-seven,  in  1678,  to  be  burned,  on  account  of  a  great 
epidemic  among  the  cattle.  One  of  the  curators  of  the 
bishop  of  Freisingen  extirpated  almost  all  the  women  in 


INTERNAL   STATE   DURING    REFORMATION        1121 

the  neighborhood  of  the  castle  of  Werdenfels.  In  1651, 
one  hundred  and  two  people  were  burned  at  Zuckmantel 
in  Silesia;  among  others,  children  of  one  to  six  years  of 
age,  who  were  said  to  be  the  offspring  of  the  devil. 

At  Ncerdlingen,  between  1590  and  1594,  thirty-two  inno- 
cent women  were  burned  as  witches  at  the  instigation  of 
Pferinger,  the  fanatical  burgomaster.  The  case  of  Rebecca 
Lemp,  a  paymaster's  wife,  who  was  universally  honored  as 
a  virtuous  wife  and  mother,  excited  the  greatest  compassion ; 
her  trial  and  touching  letters  have  been  published  by  Weng. 
The  representations  of  her  husband,  the  entreaties  of  her 
tender  children  as  they  clung  around  her,  the  testimony  of 
her  neighbors,  were  alike  unavailing;  she  was  condemned  to 
the  stake.  The  whole  of  these  unfortunates  steadily  denied 
the  truth  of  the  accusation  until  forced  by  the  rack  to  assent 
to  all  the  questions  put  to  them  by  the  executioner.  The 
thirty-third,  Maria  JELoll,  the  wife  of  an  innkeeper,  however, 
heroically  withstood  fifty-six  tortures  of  the  most  painful 
description  without  confessing;  the  people  rose  in  her  favor, 
and  even  the  clergy  prohibited  the  continuance  of  this  scene 
of  horror;  the  lawyers  finally,  but  very  unwillingly,  yielded, 
and  the  city  of  Ulm,  of  which  Maria  Holl  was  a  native,  in- 
terceding for  her  in  the  diet,  she  was  restored  to  her  friends.' 
Similar  cruelties  are  to  be  met  with  in  the  history  of  Sieg- 
burg,  where  the  fanatical  Dr.  Baumann  conducted  the  trials 
from  1636  to  1638.  Nails  were,  for  instance,  thrust  into  the 
moles  and  other  flesh  marks  discovered  on  the  bodies  of  the 
unfortunate  women,  in  order  to  deprive  the  devil  of  his  power 
over  them. — The  Jesuit,  Frederick  Spee,  saw  such  a  number 
of  witches  burned  in  Paderborn  that  he  was  struck  with  hor- 
ror, and  his  hair  is  said  to  have  turned  white  in  one  night 
from  sorrow  for  the  fate  of  one  of  the  victims,  whom  he  had 
accompanied  as  spiritual  adviser  to  the  pile.  In  1631,  he 
published  a  work,  in  which  he  exhorted  all  the  princes  and 
people  in  authority  to  put  a  stop  to  these  horrors.     One  single 

1  Weng,  The  Trial  of  the  Witches  at  Ncerdlingen. 


1122  THE    HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

judge  belonging  to  this  district  had  condemned  five  hundred 
witches  to  the  stake. 

Cornelius  Loos,  the  priest  of  Mayence,  who  declared  the 
belief  in  witchcraft  an  error,  was  compelled  by  close  impris- 
onment to  retract,  but,  unable  to  overcome  the  dictates  of  his 
conscience,  reiterated  his  entreaties  for  mercy  toward  the 
wretched  women,  whose  innocence  he  again  asserted,  and 
was  once  more  incarcerated.  Tanner,  the  Bavarian  Jesuit, 
was,  on  discovering  a  similarly  humane  spirit,  denounced  as 
a  wizard.  The  Dutchmen,  Wyerus  and  Bekker,  were  unable 
to  check  the  prevailing  superstition  of  the  age.  The  piles 
smoked  until  far  into  the  eighteenth  century.  In  1701,  seven 
witches  and  one  wizard  were  burned  at  Zurich;  in  1714,  on 
the  Heinzenberg  in  the  Grisons,  a  girl  sixteen  years  of  age 
suffered;  in  1725,  there  was  an  execution  at  Hechingen;  in 
1731;  nine  corpses  were  burned  at  Olmutz  owing  to  a  notion 
of  their  being  vampires,  who  sucked  the  blood  of  sleepers;  in 
1744,  five  witches  were  chained  in  a  great  tun,  tortured  and 
burned,  at  Tepperbuden,  near  Kolditz,  in  Lower  Silesia;  in 
1750,  Renate  Senger,  prioress  of  the  convent  of  Unterzell 
in  Wurzburg,  was  beheaded  and  burned  as  a  witch;  in  1754, 
a  girl  of  thirteen  was  beheaded  for  a  witch  in  Bavaria;  in 
1755,  another,  aged  fourteen,  suffered  at  Landshut.  In  the 
same  year,  twenty  corpses  were  burned  in  Moravia,  and, 
in  1783,  Anna  Gceldlin,  the  last  of  the  witches,  was  burned 
at  Glarus  in  Switzerland. 

CCXIX.    Poetry  and  Art 

On  the  fall  of  the  Hohenstaufen,  poetry  declined,  and 
the  song  of  the  Minnesinger  ceased  with  the  breath  of  the 
youthful  Conradin.  The  enthusiastic  feelings  of  the  poet  of 
olden  times  ill  suited  an  atmosphere  imbued  with  egotism 
and  grovelling  policy.  The  German,  since  the  days  of  the 
emperor  Rudolph,  had  been  reduced  to  the  prose  of  every- 
day life. 

At  the  close  of  the  fourteenth  century,  cuivainc  poetry 


INTERNAL    STATE    DURING    REFORMATION        112S 

ceased  with  Teichner  and  Suchenwirt,  two  noble  Austrians, 
attached  to  the  court.  Hugo  von  Montfort  and  Wolfen- 
steiner  the  Blind,  a  noble  Tyrolese,  are,  up  to  the  fifteenth 
century,  the  last  of  this  school.  The  Minnesingers  were  suc- 
ceeded by  the  civic  master-singers,  who  carried  on  verse- 
making  professionally  in  the  cities  and  regulated  the  art 
according  to  prescribed  laws.  The  characteristics  of  master- 
singing  are  pedantry  and  want  of  taste  whenever  the  poet 
attempts  a  more  elevated  flight,  while  it  ever  more  nearly 
attains  excellence  as  it  assimilates  itself  to  the  popular  style. 
Most  of  the  popular  ballads  that  were  sung  in  the  streets, 
and  some  of  which  bear  the  impress  of  high  antiquity,  be- 
came general  after  the  Reformation  on  the  gradual  dissolu- 
tion of  the  master-singing  guilds;  these  ballads,  often  vul- 
gar, but  still  oftener  of  infinite  pathos  and  harmony,  are  the 
best  specimens  of  the  poetry  of  the  age.  The  composers  of 
most  of  them  were  obscure  travelling  students  or  soldiers.  To 
these  belong  the  lays  sung  by  the  Flagellants,  and  numerous 
sacred  songs,  either  original  or  translated  from  the  Latin, 
borrowed  from  the  Hussites  and  collected  by  Luther,  who 
added  to  them  some  fine  productions  of  his  own.  The  whole 
of  these  songs  were  unrestricted  by  the  rules  prescribed  by 
the  guilds. 

The  first  master- singers,  Henry  von  Muglin  and  Musca- 
blut,  had  numerous  followers.  Almost  every  town  had  its 
singer  guild,  and  the  most  celebrated  among  the  masters 
invented  melodies  or  measures,  which  they  distinguished  by 
pompous  epithets,  and  which  merely  aimed  at  the  accurate 
measurement  of  the  syllables.  An  inflated  allegory,  a  pe- 
dantic moral,  enigmas  and  sometimes  ribaldry,  formed  their 
contents.  The  martial  deeds  of  the  time,  even  the  most  glo- 
rious, those  of  the  Swiss  and  Ditmarses,  were  sung  in  the 
same  wearisome  measure  and  were  disfigured  by  the  pedantic 
versification  composed  in  their  praise.  The  Swiss  ballads  of 
Vitus  Weber  form  an  exception,  and,  like  those  of  Ulric  von 
Hutten  of  later  date,  breathe  the  free  spirit  of  the  mountains. 
The  Thewrdank  of  Melchior  Plinzing  proves  the  utter  failure 


1124  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

of  the  master- singers  in  epic  poetry.  The  idea  of  describing 
Maximilian,  emperor  of  Germany,  who  was  ever  helplessly 
entangled  in  the  political  intrigues  of  the  day,  as  a  knight  of 
the  olden  time  of  fable  and  romance,  was  an  anachronic 
affectation.  False  sublimity  became  for  the  first  time  in- 
herent in  German  poetry.  The  peasants'  war,  the  feuds  of 
Nuremberg,  those  of  Wurtemberg,  were  feebly  sung.  The 
legends,  in  which  the  spirit  of  the  Minnesinger  is  still  per- 
ceptible, are  somewhat  better;  for  instance,  the  Apollonius 
of  Tyrlandt  by  Henry  von  Neustadt,  the  French  King's 
Daughter  by  Buhler,  the  Moorish  Girl  by  Hermann  von 
Sachenheim,  etc.,  above  all,  the  collection  of  amusing  le- 
gends under  the  title  of  "The  Seven  Wise  Masters,"  and 
those  of  Dr.  Faust,  of  Fortunatus,  and  of  the  Venusberg, 
so  characteristic  of  the  age.  The  ever- increasing  lust  for 
wealth  and  pleasure  is  well  and  tragically  represented  in 
these  last-mentioned  legends.  There  were,  besides  these, 
numerous  older  legends  from  the  book  of  heroes,  of  the  holy 
Graal,  etc.,  which  were  reduced  to  prose,  and  in  this  age  ap- 
peared all  the  little  popular  books,  which,  in  homely  prose, 
repeated  the  contents  of  the  finest  of  the  ancient  heroic  bal- 
lads. Modern  romances  and  novels  in  prose  made  their  first 
appearance  in  Swabia.  Nicolas  von  Wile,  town-clerk  of 
Esslingen,  and  Albert  von  Eyb  were  the  first  translators  or 
writers  of  love-tales  in  prose,  to  which  they  were  prompted 
by  ^Eneas  Sylvius,  in  imitation  of  Italian  literature.  Spee, 
a  lyric  poet  in  the  spirit  of  the  old  Minnesingers,  appeared 
tit  a  later  period  (1635)  in  Bavaria. 

The  transition  to  learned  poesy  caused  the  Dutch  Rede- 
rykers  (rhetoricians),  who  had  already  acquired  a  false  taste 
for  classical  refinement,  to  compose  didactic  and  satirical 
poems  in  the  spirit  of  the  Reformers.  They  formed  them- 
selves into  chambers,  which,  for  some  time,  had  an  ex- 
tremely democratic  bias.  John  of  Leyden  was  one  of  these 
Rederykers.  Anna  Byms,  on  the  other  hand,  gained  for  her- 
self the  title  of  the  Sappho  of  Brabant  by  her  coarse  satires 
against  Luther.     Just  van  den  Vondel  was  the  best  Dutch 


INTERNAL    STATE    DURING    REFORMATION        1125 

poet. — The  learned  humanists  imitated  the  poetry  of  the  an- 
cients. These  Latin  university  and  court- poets  deemed  them- 
selves far  superior  to  all  others  and  pretended  to  the  bor- 
rowed Italian  custom  of  being  crowned  with  laurel.  This 
ceremony  was  performed  either  by  the  emperor  in  person,  or 
by  his  proxy,  the  Pfalzgraf.  But  few  among  these  poets- 
laureate  deserved  the  honor.  Even  the  celebrated  Celtes 
was  distinguished  more  by  his  inclination  for  the  study  of 
the  ancients  than  for  his  poetry.  The  rest  of  the  laureates 
have  been  with  justice  consigned  to  oblivion.  Their  stilted 
Latin  verses  are  unreadable  and  merely  show  the  gulf  that, 
even  at  that  period,  separated  the  princes  and  the  learned 
world  from  the  people,  and  the  foolish  assumption  of  princes 
in  dispensing  fame  that  public  opinion  can  alone  bestow. 
The  poets- laureate  were  sensible  of  the  fallacy  of  their  posi- 
tion; they  perceived  the  necessity  of  assimilating  themselves 
with  the  people,  and,  under  the  celebrated  Opitz,  again  be- 
gan to  sing  in  German,  but  still  retained  their  antique  forms, 
ideas,  and  imagery.  This  was  the  commencement  of  mod- 
ern poetry.  One  Latin  poet  alone,  the  Dutchman,  Johannes 
Secundus,  in  1536,  distinguished  himself  by  his  verses  in 
imitation  of  Ovid.  Among  the  literary  follies  of  the  day 
were  the  poems  of  Pierius,  one  of  which,  in  honor  of  Christ, 
was  composed  of  words  commencing  with  C;  the  other,  in 
honor  of  the  emperor  Maximilian,  of  words  commencing 
with  M. 

The  satirical  poems  against  papacy,  foreign  policy,  the 
loose  morality  and  hypocrisy  of  the  age,  are  the  best  that 
appeared  during  the  Reformation.  Sarcasm  and  ridicule 
were  the  only  weapons  with  which  more  elevated  minds 
could  attack  the  general  depravity.  The  master-singer, 
Hans  Rosenpliit,  who  delineated  a  "king  in  his  bath"  and 
an  "amorous  priest,"  was  one  of  the  earliest  of  the  satirical 
writers  of  the  fourteenth  century.  An  extremely  popular 
work,  "Liber  Vagatorum,"  turned  the  begging  orders  into 
ridicule.  A  collection  of  "Merry  Tales  of  the  Parson  of  the 
Calenberg"  showed  the  priest  as  a  man  and  a  boon  compan- 


1126  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

ion.  The  Reformation  came  and  added  force  to  the  sar- 
casms hurled  against  the  clergy.  Alberus  wrote  the  Alcoran 
of  the  begging  monks;  Fischart,  the  Roman  Beehive.  The 
latter  translated  Rabelais  from  the  French,  with  numerous 
additions  in  an  original  style,  highly  genial  in  the  midst  of 
its  bombast.  Ulric  von  Hutten  was  also  the  author  of  sev- 
eral excellent  satires.  Theological  coarseness  and  common- 
place, however,  crept  in  at  a  later  period,  as  may  be  seen  in 
the  "Monk's  Ass"  of  Albanus,  etc. — The  time  for  political 
satires  had  not  yet  arrived,  the  princes  being  exclusively  oc- 
cupied with  politics,  the  people  with  religion  and  morality. 
The  age  of  the  Reformation,  consequently,  produced  merely 
one  political  satire,  but  one  that  has  not  been  yet  surpassed, 
the  famous  Reinecke  de  Vos  (Reinecke  Fuchs),  a  fable,  in 
which  King  Lion  holds  his  court,  and  the  cunning  fox  (Ital- 
ian policy)  contrives  to  manage  affairs  with  such  clever  mal- 
ice, that  right  and  innocence  are  ever  oppressed,  and  violence 
and  cunning  ever  triumph.  The  materials  of  this  fable  are 
old  and  are  derived  from  the  heathen  fable.  They  were 
first  transformed  into  a  satirical  poem,  in  the  Netherlands, 
during  the  twelfth  century,  and  were  several  times  after- 
ward translated  and  revised;  but  it  was  not  until  the  six- 
teenth century  when  the  taste  for  satirical  poetry  increased, 
that  it  was  made  generally  known,  by  Nicolas  Baumann's 
translation  from  the  Dutch  of  William  de  Madoc  into  Low 
German,  when  it  became  a  national  work. — Sebastian  Brand 
amusingly  described  all  the  follies  of  public  and  private  life 
in  his  time,  in  his  celebrated  "Ship  of  Fools,1'  and  Erasmus 
published,  in  Latin,  his  "Praise  of  Folly."  In  Lower  Sax- 
ony, the  Koker  (the  quiver  full  of  shafts  of  wit)  appeared, 
and  Burkhard  Waldis  distinguished  himself  by  his  fables; 
Pauli  collected  merry  tales  in  1578.  Agricola  of  Berlin 
acquired  great  note  by  a  collection  of  German  proverbs. 
The  humanists  also  brought  imitations  of  the  ancient  satires 
into  vogue.  Homer's  War  between  the  Frogs  and  Mice  was, 
for  instance,  copied  in  Rollenhagen's  "Froschmeeusler,"  and 
in  Schnurr's  "War  between  the  Ants  and  Flies";  Rollen- 


INTERNAL  STATE  DURING   REFORMATION       1127 

hagen,  in  his  "Italian  Travels,"  also  attempted  an  imitation 
of  the  fabulous  narrations  of  Lucian;  "The  Merry  Journey 
of  the  Sparrow-hawk  Knight,"  may  also  be  cited.  The  in- 
creasing coarseness  of  the  sixteenth  century,  consequent  on 
the  religious  contest,  gradually  infected  satire  with  low  ob- 
scenity, and  there  appeared  a  Latin  "Fleaad,"  a  German 
"Fleabait, "  an  "Ass-king,"  an  "Asinine  Nobility  and  the 
Triumph  of  the  Sow,"  etc.  Dedekind's  "Grobianus, "  a 
satire  levelled  against  the  coarseness  and  vulgarity  of  the 
age,  best  describes  this  period.  The  celebrated  Lalenbook 
of  1597  is  a  capital  satire  upon  the  little  imperial  free  towns. 
The  peasantry  were  even  an  object  of  satire.  Rosenplut,  the 
civic  master-singer,  ridiculed  the  "wealthy  peasant,"  who 
strove  to  raise  himself  above  his  station,  and  Reithart  pub- 
lished his  merry  "Frolics  with  the  Peasants."  The  peas- 
ants, however,  took  up  the  lash  in  their  turn,  and  the  reac- 
tion of  peasant  wit  against  the  higher  classes  gave  rise,  in 
the  fifteenth  century,  to  the  famous  popular  work  "The 
Eulenspiegel, "  a  collection  of  witty,  coarse,  often  obscene 
anecdotes  attributed  to  a  waggish  boor,  whose  original  may 
perhaps  have  in  reality  existed.  The  force  of  this  unpretend- 
ing but  cutting  satire  lay  in  the  natural  sagacity  with  which 
the  over-wisdom  of  the  merchants,  professors,  doctors, 
judges,  clergy,  nobility,  and  princes  were  unmasked  and 
derided,  and  the  low  malice  contained  in  it  is  merely  the 
national  expression  of  a  hatred  naturally  felt  by  the  peasant 
in  his  state  of  degradation. 

mL  \.~,x  ^presentations  had  come  into  vogue  since  the 
council  of  Constance.  At  first  they  merely  consisted  of  mys- 
teries, biblical  scenes,  and  allegories;  afterward,  of  profane 
plays,  during  the  carnival.  The  master-singer  corpora- 
tion of  Nuremberg  particularly  distinguished  itself  in  the 
latter.  It  was  here  that  Rosenplut,  or  the  fly-catcher,  and 
Hans  Volz  nourished.  Hans  Sachs,  the  cobbler  of  Nurem- 
berg, 1576,  who  left  behind  him  five  folio  volumes,  chiefly 
filled  with  dialogues,  comedies,  and  tragedies,  however,  sur- 
passed all  the  rest.     He  was  a  friend  of  Luther,  was  replete 


1128  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

with  talent,  and  unshackled  by  prejudice.  Biblical  and 
universal  history,  ancient  mythology  and  German  legend, 
every- day  life  and  allegory,  were  the  rich  materials  on  which 
he  worked;  but  in  his  pieces  the  scenes  follow  with  startling 
rapidity,  the  dialogue  is  comparatively  meagre,  and  the 
whole  more  resembles  a  rapid  succession  of  tableaux-vivans 
than  a  play.  With  the  exception  of  the  little  and  generally 
highly-finished  farces  and  dialogues,  which  contain  but  few 
characters,  all  his  great  historical  pieces  are  simply  sketches; 
their  happy  choice  and  management,  and  the  charm  that 
ever  lay  in  the  subject,  whether  the  composition  were  more 
or  less  elaborate,  rendered  them,  nevertheless,  highly  popu- 
lar. Sachs  had  numerous  imitators,  the  most  celebrated  of 
whom,  toward  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century,  was  Jacob 
Ayrer  of  Nuremberg,  who,  however,  shared  the  increasing 
grossness  of  the  taste  of  the  times  and  delighted  in  scenes  of 
blood  and  obscenity  (Opus  Theatricum,  1618).  Henry  Julius, 
the  poetical  duke  of  Brunswick,  his  contemporary,  greatly 
advanced  the  German  stage. — Political  comedies  also  took 
the  place  of  the  carnival  farces  in  the  republican-spirited  im- 
perial free  towns.  The  depravity  of  the  courts  was,  for  in- 
stance, derided  in  the  "Court  Devil,"  the  scholastics,  in  the 
"Academical  Devil,"  the  sale  of  dispensations,  in  the  "Tet- 
zelocramia, "  the  intemperance  and  immorality  of  German 
manners  at  that  period,  in  the  "German  Glutton."  Na- 
tional history  was  also  brought  upon  the  stage.  The  "Siege 
of  Weinsberg,"  or  "Woman's  Faith";  "Luther's  Life";  the 
"Christian  Knight  of  Eisleben";  the  "Muntzer  Peasant 
War";  the  "Clausensturm,"  or  "The  Victory  of  the  Elector 
Maurice  over  the  Emperor";  and  a  tragedy,  "Wallenstein 
and  Gustavus, "  were  represented.  The  Lutherans  ridiculed 
the  Calvinists  in  a  "  Cal vinistic  Post-boy. ' '  During  the  thirty 
years'  war,  the  promotion  of  unity  among  the  Protestants  was 
attempted  by  a  "Swedish  Treaty";  and,  in  1647,  "Peace- 
wishing  Germany,"  an  intimation  to  the  ambassadors  at 
Osnabruck  and  Munster  to  accelerate  the  proclamation  of 
peace,  was  publicly  represented.     Pastoral  poetry,  in  imita- 


INTERNAL    STATE   DURING    REFORMATION        1129 

tion  of  Guarini,  the  Italian  poet,  who  had  followed  in  the 
footsteps  of  Theocritus,  was,  at  that  period,  also  generally 
cultivated,  the  imagination,  in  those  warlike  and  disturbed 
times,  dwelling  with  delight  on  ideal  scenes  of  innocence 
and  peace.  The  German  stage  was,  however,  unfortunately 
neglected  on  that  account  by  the  most  distinguished  literati 
of  the  day.  The  celebrated  Frischlin,  Naogeorg,  and  other 
savants  of  the  sixteenth  century  composed  elegant  Latin 
plays. 

External  life  lost  much  of  its  former  beauty.  The  mode 
of  dress  became  more  and  more  bizarre  and  foreign.  The 
Spaniard  introduced  the  stiff  collar  and  pointed  hat;  the 
Swiss,  puffs,  plaits,  and  slashes;  and  the  Frenchman,  the 
allonge  peruke,  an  ell  in  length. 

The  fine  creations  of  Gothic  architecture  remained  in  an 
unfinished  state.  The  religious  enthusiasm  that  had  founded 
those  wondrous  edifices  had  died  away  before  their  comple- 
tion. The  mighty  Cologne  cathedral  stood  incomplete;  of 
the  Strasburg  minster  one  tower  had  been  finished  in  1439  by 
John  flulz,  the  other  was  forsaken.  Ulm  cathedral  shared 
the  same  fate.  Merely  the  richest  towns,  particularly  those 
in  the  Netherlands,  completed  their  unfinished  churches; 
and,  under  the  pious  Habsburgs,  the  great  tower  of  St.  Ste- 
phen at  Vienna  was  first  begun,  in  1407,  by  Anton  Pilgram. 
The  second  tower  is  still  unbuilt.  The  taste  for  building 
passed  away  with  the  Reformation;  more  zeal  was  displayed 
in  robbing  and  destroying,  than  in  raising,  churches.  The 
church  had  become  the  slave  of  the  court,  and  the  faithful 
Jesuits  were,  by  court  favor,  alone  in  a  position  to  build 
great  temples  and  palaces  in  a  bad  Italian  style,  devoid  of 
sublimity  or  harmony,  which  was  also  adopted  in  the  castles 
of  the  princes. 

Painting  rose  as  architecture  declined.  Human  nature 
and  earthly  objects  were  studied  instead  of  the  supernatural 
and  divine.  In  the  Netherlands,  in  the  commencement  of 
the  fifteenth  century,  John  van  Eyck,  the  inventor  of  oil- 
painting,  and  his  brother  Hubert  surpassed  all  the  artists 


1130  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

of  their  time.  Besides  depth  and  strength  of  coloring,  they 
first  gave  increased  life  to  their  figures  and  richness  to  their 
groups.  These  brothers  were  succeeded  by  Hans  Hemling, 
an  artist  of  great  merit;  in  the  sixteenth  century,  by  Scho- 
reel,  Lucas  von  Leyden,  and  Guintin  Messis,  a  smith,  who, 
for  love  of  an  artist's  daughter,  studied  her  father's  art,  in 
which  he  attained  great  excellence.  A  high  German  school, 
closely  allied  with  the  Dutch,  and  in  which  Albert  Durer 
in  Nuremberg,  in  1508,  Hans  Holbein  in  Basel,  in  1554, 
and  gentle  Lucas  Cranach,  the  stanch  friend  of  the  true- 
hearted  elector  of  Saxony,  in  1553,  surpassed  all  other 
contemporary  artists,  was  formed  at  this  period.  The 
religious  feeling  of  the  age  is  impressed  on  the  produc- 
tions of  all  these  artists,  and  the  epic  character  of  the 
pictures  of  earlier  date,  which,  crowded  with  innumerable 
dwarf-like  forms,  contained,  like  the  earlier  theatrical  rep- 
resentations, a  whole  history  from  beginning  to  end,  was 
gradually  lost. 

Painting  on  glass  was  also  carried  to  perfection  in  the 
fifteenth  century.  This  art  was  cultivated  exclusively  in 
Germany,  more  particularly  in  the  Netherlands,  whence  the 
artists  were  summoned  to  adorn  the  dark  domes  of  other 
countries  with  their  magic  creations.  Franz  was,  in  1436, 
Bent  for  from  Lubeck  for  the  purpose  of  ornamenting  the 
churches  of  Florence  with  painted  glass. 

When  art  flourished  at  Nuremberg,  when  Hans  Sachs 
sang  and  Durer  painted,  sculpture  was  raised  to  a  higher 
degree  of  perfection  by  Kraft  and  Peter  Vischer. 

The  religious  struggle  had  been  unfavorable  to  art.  What 
the  iconoclast  had  respected  had,  during  the  thirty  years' 
war,  almost  without  exception,  been  destroyed  by  the  sol- 
diery. The  wealthy  Dutch  alone  cultivated  art,  but  their 
style  had  become  entirely  profane,  and,  generally  speaking, 
vulgar.  Nature  suddenly  threw  off  the  shackles  imposed  by 
the  church.  The  great  artist,  Peter  Paul  Rubens,  in  1640, 
took  his  models  from  life,  gave  warmth  and  vigor  to  his 
coloring,  and  preferred  battle-pieces  and  voluptuous  scenes. 


INTERNAL   STATE   DURING    REFORMATION        1131 

Although  the  founder  of  the  profane  Flemish  school,  he  sur- 
passes all  his  successors  in  vigor  and  warmth. 

The  art  of  engraving  was  invented  about  the  middle  of 
the  fifteenth  century,  it  is  uncertain  whether  in  Italy  or  Ger- 
many. Israel  of  Mechlin  was  one  of  the  first  engravers;  to 
him  succeeded  Martin  Schcen;  the  celebrated  painter,  Albert 
Durer,  was  also  distinguished  as  an  engraver,  besides  Gol- 
zius,  Muller,  Vischer,  etc.,  and  Merian. 

A  school  of  music  as  well  as  of  painting,  the  precursor  to 
the  great  Italian  school  of  the  sixteenth  century,  was  founded 
in  the  Netherlands  in  the  fifteenth  century.  The  greatest 
master  was  John  Ockeghem  (Ockenheim),  who  died  at  a 
great  age,  in  1513.  He  greatly  improved  counterpoint  com- 
position. Besides  him,  Jacob  Hobrecht  and  Bernhardt  the 
German,  who,  in  1470,  invented  the  pedal  to  the  organ,  flour- 
ished at  Venice.  Since  their  time,  numbers  of  German  mu- 
sicians crossed  the  Alps  and  taught  the  Italians,  as,  for  in- 
stance, Henry  the  German  (Arrigo  Tedesco),  chapel-director 
to  Maximilian  I.  In  Germany,  Adam  of  Fulda,  Hermann 
Fink,  and  the  blind  Paulmann,  flourished  at  Nuremberg. 
In  the  commencement  of  the  sixteenth  century,  the  Dutch- 
man, Adrian  Willaert,  greatly  advanced  the  art  by  his  com- 
positions on  a  more  extensive  scale  for  voices,  the  first  step 
toward  the  opera.  Italy  was,  however,  again  the  scene  of 
this  triumph,  and,  shortly  afterward,  Palestrina  raised  sacred 
music,  and  Montaverde  that  of  the  opera,  to  their  present 
state,  and  the  merit  of  their  German  teachers  was  obscured 
by  the  brilliancy  of  their  fame.  Good  masters  were,  not- 
withstanding, not  wanting  in  Germany.  Luther  promoted 
church  music,  and  the  princes  patronized  the  opera.  In 
1628,  Sagittarius  (Schutz)  composed  the  first  German  opera, 
"Daphne,"  a  translation  from  the  Italian,  for  the  elector  of 
Saxony.  The  German  courts  were  at  this  period  overrun 
with  Italian  singers  and  chapel- directors. 


1132  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 


CCXX.   Histories  and  Travels 

The  discovery  of  the  art  of  printing  had,  as  early  as  the 
fifteenth  century,  given  a  great  impulse  to  historical  writing. 
The  monk  no  longer  wrote  in  his  lonely  cell;  the  princes  took 
historiographers  into  their  service  for  the  purpose  of  handing 
down  their  deeds  to  posterity  or  of  eternalizing  the  renown 
of  their  house  and  of  defending  its  claims;  the  cities  luxu- 
riated in  their  great  records,  and  history  was  begun  to  be 
taught  as  a  science  at  the  universities. 

Universal  Chronicles  were  written  in  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury by  John  von  Winterthur  and  Albert  of  Strasburg;  in 
the  fifteenth,  by  Engelhusen,  Edward  Dynter,  an  English- 
man, author  of  the  celebrated  Chron.  Belgicum  Magnum, 
Gobelimus  Persona,  Werner  Rolewink,  John  ab  Indagine 
(agen),  Schedel,  Steinhcevel,  Nauclerus,  Cuspinianus;  in 
the  sixteenth,  by  Amandus  von  Ziriksee  and  Sebastian 
Frank,  the  Anabaptist.  The  last  Universal  Chronicle,  or- 
namented with  engravings,  a  popular  work,  was  written  by 
Gottfried.  The  first  systematic  Manual  of  Universal  His- 
tory, the  celebrated  Carionis  Chronicon,  also  appeared. 
Megerlein  of  Basel  treated  universal  history  in  a  religious 
point  of  view;  Boxhorn,  the  Dutchman,  in  a  political  one. 
Eeineccius  of  Helmstasdt,  the  first  historical  critic,  intro- 
duced the  mode  of  historical  writing,  of  encumbering  the 
text  with  notes  and  citations,  that  was  afterward  generally 
adopted. — The  collections  of  old  historical  works  also  began 
in  the  sixteenth  century,  the  Scriptores  Rerum  Germanica- 
rum,  the  first  by  Hervagius,  the  Basel  printer,  in  1532, 
which  was  followed  by  those  of  Schardius,  Reuberus,  Pis- 
torius,  Urstisius  (Wurstisen),  and  Lindenbrog;  in  the  seven- 
teenth century,  by  those  of  Goldast,  who  wrote  the  history 
of  Swabia  and  on  the  affairs  of  the  empire,  and  Freher,  who 
also  reviewed  all  the  German  historians.  Separate  portions 
of  the  earlier  histories  were  also  revised.  Trithemius,  the 
abbot  of  Hirsau,  besides  writing  the  Chronicle  of  his  monas- 


INTERNAL    STATE   DURING    REFORMATION        1133 

tery,  important  in  reference  to  the  history  of  Swabia,  threw 
great  light  upon  the  earlier  history  of  the  Franks.  In  the 
fifteenth  century,  Ruxner  wrote  the  great  Tournament  Book, 
whence  may  be  collected  a  history  of  the  different  noble 
houses  of  Germany;  in  the  seventeenth,  Zinkgreff  published 
an  amusing  collection  of  historical  anecdotes,  Apophtheg- 
mata,  or  witty  German  sayings. 

Notwithstanding  the  numerous  historians  of  the  times, 
the  accounts  of  the  most  important  events  remained  buried 
in  the  archives.  Theodore  von  Niem  produced  a  biography 
of  the  pope,  John  XXIII.  Ulric  von  Reichenthal,  Gebhard 
Dacher,  and  Vrie  wrote  upon  the  council  of  Constance;  Ut- 
tenheim,  upon  that  of  Basel;  Windec  wrote  the  Life  of  Sig- 
mund;  Boregk  and  Hageck,  Petrus  Abbas,  de  Weitmuhl, 
the  History  of  Bohemia;  Theobald,  Cochlseus,  Brzezina,  in 
particular,  on  the  Hussite  war.  The  writings  of  ^fineas 
Sylvius  supply  rich  matter  for  history,  particularly  the  long 
reign  of  Frederick  III. ;  Grumbech  also  gave  an  account  of 
this  emperor,  and  Eitelwolf  von  Stein  one  of  the  Venetian 
war.  On  being  complimented  for  his  fine  description  of  this 
war,  he  replied,  "If  only  it  had  been  better  conducted!" 
Pirkheimer  wrote  on  the  Swiss  war.  The  histories  of 
Charles  V.  and  of  the  commencement  of  the  Reformation 
have  been  most  ably  penned  by  Sleidanus  von  Sleida.  Seck- 
endorf  and  Chytroeus  treated  of  the  diet  of  Augsburg  and  the 
Augsburg  Confession;  Spalatinus,  of  the  share  taken  by  Sax- 
ony in  the  Reformation.  The  autobiographies  of  Goetz  von 
Berhchingen  and  Sebastian  Schertlin  are  highly  worthy  of 
remark,  as  well  as  von  Reisner's  Life  of  George  von  Frunds- 
berg.  The  most  important  histories  of  the  sixteenth  century 
are  those  of  Paulus  Jovius,  Perizonius,  Surius,  and  the  cele- 
brated Frenchman  Thuanus  (du  Thou).  The  thirty  years' 
war  found  numerous  commentators,  all  of  whom,  however, 
are  silent  as  to  the  most  important  facts.  The  principal 
works  on  this  period  are:  the  Annales  Ferdinandei,  by 
Count  Khevenhiller;  the  Swedish  War,  by  Chemnitz;  the 
Theatrum  Europoeum,  commenced  by  Gottfried;  the  history 


1134  THE    HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

Persecutions  Bohemicse,  the  "History  of  the  League,"  the 
"Laurel  Wreath  of  War,"  Le  Soldat  Suedois  of  Spanheim, 
Burgi  Mars  Sueo-Germanicus,  Arlanisaei  arma  Suecica, 
Guaido,  Lotichius,  Lundorpius,  Piasecius,  Langwitzer,  and 
Waffenberg,  who  surnamed  himself  the  German  Floras. 
On  Frederick  of  Bohemia,  see  Eblanius  and  the  French 
Memoirs  of  Fontenoy;  on  Ferdinand  II.,  the  Status  Regni 
Ferd.  and  Father  Lamormain;  on  Wallenstein,  Priorato 
■and  the  Perduellonis  Chaos;  on  Tilly,  Liborius  Vulturnus; 
on  Gustavus  Adolphus,  Burgus,  Hallenberg,  and  the  con- 
temporary Swedish  historians.  Volmar  wrote  the  Diary  of 
the  Peace  of  Westphalia.  As  early  as  the  sixteenth  cent- 
ury, Hasenmuller  had  written  a  History  of  the  Jesuits. 
There  were,  moreover,  innumerable  pamphleteers. 

The  greater  portion  of  historical  works  and  by  far  the 
most  important  among  them  were  the  provincial  histories. 
On  Austria,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  wrote  Wolfgang  Laz- 
ius,  De  Roo,  Cuspinianus  (Spiesshammer),  Fugger,  the  au- 
thor of  the  Austrian  Mirror  of  Chivalry,  Pesel,  that  of  the 
Siege  of  Vienna. — On  Bavaria,  in  the  fourteenth  century, 
Volcmar;  in  the  fifteenth,  Aventinus  (Thurnmayer),  An- 
dreas Presbyter,  an  unknown  chronicler  in  Pollingen,  an 
annalist  of  Tegernsee  and  Hoffman;  in  the  sixteenth,  Welser, 
Hund,  Raderus  (Bavaria  sacra);  in  the  seventeenth,  Brun- 
ner  and  Adlzreiter  (Vervaux).  On  the  Tyrol,  in  the  four- 
teenth century,  Goswin;  in  the  sixteenth,  Kirchmayr;  dur- 
ing the  thirty  years'  war,  Burglechner  (The  Tyrolean  Eagle), 
Maximilian,  Count  von  Mohr,  and  two  brothers,  Barons  von 
Wolkenstein. — On  Swabia  appeared,  besides  Goldast's  Col- 
lection of  German  Historians,  in  the  fifteenth  century,  Ly- 
rer's  fabulous  Swabian  Chronicle,  a  History  of  Augsburg 
by  Gossenprot,  and  one  of  the  city  of  Ellwangen;  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  Crusius's  great  Swabian  Chronicle,  a  His- 
tory of  Augsburg  by  Gosser,  another  of  the  city  of  Constance 
by  Manlius,  and  Bebel's  Praise  of  Swabia. — On  Switzerland 
wrote,  in  the  fifteenth  century,  Haemmerlin  and  Etterlyn, 
Frickhard  pu blished  "The  Straggle  with  the  Despots, ' '  Schil- 


INTERNAL    STATE    DURING    REFORMATION        1135 

Jing,  his  admirable  account  of  the  Burgundiau  War,  and 
Justinger,  the  Bernese  Chronicle,  continued  by  Tschachtlan; 
in  the  sixteenth  century,  appeared  the  great  Chronicles  of 
Tschudi  and  Stumpf,  a  History  of  Berne  by  Eysat,  of  St. 
Gail  by  Vadianus,  of  the  Grisons  by  Anhorn,  Pachaly,  and 
Guler  von  Weineck,  of  Basel  by  Wurstisen,  and  a  Chronicle 
by  Stettler. — On  the  History  of  Franconia,  we  find,  in  the 
fourteenth  century,  Riedefel's  Chronicle  of  Hesse,  Kcenigs- 
hoven's  Alsace,  Gensbein's  admirably  written  Limburg 
Chronicle,  the  celebrated  account  of  the  Holy  City  of  Co- 
logne, printed  in  1499;  and,  in  the  seventeenth  century,  the 
good  Chronicle  of  Spires  by  Lehmann,  and  an  excellent  work 
upon  Treves  by  Browerus. 

In  respect  to  the  history  of  the  Netherlands,  appeared  the 
writings  of  Olivier  de  la  Marche,  Castellarius,  Heuterus  and 
Plancher  on  Burgundy,  those  of  de  Smet  and  Meyerus  on 
Flanders,  of  Haraeus  on  Brabant,  of  Snoi  and  Scriverius 
on  Holland.  The  war  of  liberation  in  the  Netherlands  has 
been  related  by  Bor,  Reydt,  Leo  ab  Aitzema,  Meteren,  van 
Hooft,  Strada,  Guicciardini  and  Bentivoglio.  Beninga,  Ubbo 
Emmius,  and  Siccama,  who  published  the  Laws  of  Ancient 
Friesland,  wrote  upon  that  country,  and,  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  Neocorus  published  a  History  of  the  Ditmarses. 
The  principal  works  upon  Lower  Saxony  were,  in  the  four- 
teenth century,  the  Chronicle  of  Hermann  Cornerus  of  Lu- 
beck;  in  the  fifteenth,  Botho's  Chronicles  of  the  Sassen,  and 
Albert  Crantz's  Saxonia  et  Vandalia;  in  the  sixteenth,  the 
History  of  Detmar  and  Reimar  by  Koch  of  Lubeck,  that  of 
Cleves  by  Teschenmacher,  that  of  Brunswick  in  the  fifteenth 
century;  that  of  Stadtwig  by  Propendyk  and  the  Luneburg 
Chronicle.  Pomanus,  Reineccius,  and  Meibomius  were  the 
historiographers  of  Upper  Saxony;  Albinus  and  Broutuffi 
wrote  upon  Misnia  in  the  sixteenth  century,  Spangenberg 
upon  Mansfeld,  Torquatus  and  Pomarius  (Baumgarten) 
upon  Magdeburg. — In  the  fifteenth  century,  appeared  Von 
Rothe's  admirable  Chronicle  of  Thuringia.  In  the  sixteenth 
century,  Eisenioher  of  Breslau  published  a  History  of  Silesia, 


1136  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

&nd  in  the  seventeenth,  Schickfuss  and  Henelius.  On  Meck- 
lenburg, see  Mylius's  History  in  the  sixteenth  century,  Hed- 
crich's  History  of  Schwerin,  and  Lindenbrog's  of  Rostock. 
On  Pomerania,  see  Kanzaw's  fine  Chronicle,  a  work  by  Bu- 
genhagen,  an  excellent  Chronicle  of  Stralsund  by  Berkmann; 
in  the  seventeenth  century,  the  History  of  Pomerania  by 
Micrsslius.  On  Prussia,  in  the  fifteenth  century,  see  John 
von  Lindenblatt;  in  the  sixteenth,  Runovius,  Caspar  Schutz, 
and  Lucas  David. — On  Livonia,  in  the  thirteenth  century j 
Ditleb  von  Altneke;  in  the  sixteenth,  Russowen  and  Hiasrne; 
in  the  seventeenth,  Strauch  and  Menius.  Kelch  wrote  a 
Chronicle  of  Dorpat.  Petrejus's  History  of  Moscow  may 
also  be  included. 

The  German  travellers  who  enriched  Germany  with  their 
descriptions  of  distant  parts  of  the  globe  next  come  under 
consideration.  The  Holy  Land  was  at  first  diligently  ex- 
plored. Rauwolf,  Baumgarten,  Breuning  von  Buchenbach, 
and  Porsius,  who  wrote  an  account  of  a  Persian  war  in  verse, 
penetrated,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  further  eastward,  some 
of  them  as  far  as  Persia;  in  the  seventeenth  century,  Gentius 
examined  all  the  libraries  in  Constantinople  and  for  the  first 
time  translated  Saadi's  Gulistan  from  the  Persian;  there  were 
also  Olearius,  the  Holstein  ambassador,  who  crossed  Russia 
to  Persia,  Troilo,  and  Strauss.  Peter  Heyling  of  Lubeck 
penetrated  into  Abyssinia,  where  he  married  a  near  relative 
of  the  king,  and,  in  1647,  translated  the  Gospel  of  St.  John 
into  the  Amhar  tongue. — At  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  cent- 
ury, the  Dutch  first  circumnavigated  the  world,  Van  Noort 
in  1598,  Schouten  in  1615,  etc.  They  were  accompanied  by 
other  Germans,  who  often  gave  an  account  of  their  voyages 
to  the  world,  as,  for  instance,  George  von  Spielberg  in  1614, 
and  Deker  of  Strasburg  in  1626.  These  voyages  round  the 
world  became,  in  the  seventeenth  century,  regular  commer- 
cial trips  to  the  East  Indies;  see,  for  instance,  those  of  Van 
der  Brock,  Matelief,  Bonteku,  Saar,  etc.  Numerous  other 
German  travellers,  Wurfbain  of  Nuremberg,  a  Baron  von 
Mandelslohe  from  Mecklenburg,  von  Boy  of  Frankfort,  Merk- 


INTERNAL    STATE    DURING    REFORMATION        1137 

lin,  Kirwitzer,  Vogel,  and  Ziegenbalk  also  visited  the  East 
The  German  Jesuits  also  penetrated  as  far  as  China,  where 
they  gained  many  converts,  and,  by  their  adroitness,  the 
favor  of  the  lord  of  the  Celestial  Empire.  The  first  of  that 
order  who  visited  China  was  Adam  Schall,  the  most  cele- 
brated, Verbiest,  in  1668.  John  Gruber  published  an  ac- 
count of  China  in  1661. 

One  of  the  most  distinguished  of  the  great  western  dis- 
coverers was  Martin  Behaim  of  Nuremberg,  who  enjoyed 
great  repute  as  a  mathematician  at  the  court  of  John,  king 
of  Portugal,  improved  the  astrolabe  for  the  use  of  mariners, 
and  was  a  friend  of  Columbus,  whose  faith  in  the  existence 
of  a  continent  in  the  West  he  greatly  tended  to  strengthen. 
Behaim  made  voyages  of  discovery  to  the  African  coast,  was 
knighted  by  the  king,  and  became  a  wealthy  landed  proprie- 
tor in  the  island  of  Fayal,  one  of  the  Azores,  by  a  marriage 
with  the  daughter  of  a  Dutchman,  Jobst  von  Hurter,  who 
held  that  island  in  fee,  and  founded  there  the  city  named 
after  him,  Villa  da  florto.  One  of  Behaim's  globes  is  still 
shown  at  Nuremberg. — The  new  continent  discovered  by 
Columbus  received  the  name  of  America  in  Germany,  from 
a  certain  Waldseemuller  of  Freiburg  in  the  Breisgau,  who 
studied  geography  at  St.  Die  in  Lorraine,  under  the  protec- 
tion of  the  Duke  Rene\  and,  ignorant  of  the  existence  of 
Columbus,  published  four  voyages  of  Amerigo  Vespucci, 
whose  name  acquired  celebrity  as  that  of  the  discoverer  of 
the  new  continent,  before  the  Spaniards  became  aware  of  the 
circumstance.' — Shortly  after  the  discovery  of  the  sea  pas- 
sage to  the  East  Indies,  and  after  that  of  America,  some 
wealthy  Augsburg  merchants  made  great  commercial  trips 
thither.  The  Fuggers,  as  early  as  1505,  sent  a  fleet  to  Cali- 
cut in  the  East  Indies.  In  1528,  the  Welsers  sent  another 
to  explore  the  western  coasts  of  America,  hitherto  uninves- 
tigated, and  their  servant,   Dal  finger  of  Ulm,   became  the 

1  Vespucci  was  totally  ignorant  of  the  honor  that  had  been  paid  to  him.  Ho 
was  a  man  of  unpretending  character,  extremely  devoted  to  Columbus,  from 
whose  merit  he  was  far  from  wishful  to  detract.  Waldseem  tiller  cannot  oithor 
be  blamed,  for  he  had  never  heard  of  Columbus. — Humboldt. 

Germany.     Vol.  III. — 10 


1138  THE    HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

founder  and  the  first  governor  of  Valparaiso.  Bartholemy 
Welser,  grandfather  to  the  celebrated  Philippina,  was  in- 
vested by  the  emperor  Charles  V.  with  the  eastern  coast  of 
America,  in  return  for  a  loan  of  twelve  tons  of  gold.  Dal- 
finger,  hearing  that  an  immense  palace  of  pure  gold  had 
been  built  in  the  interior  of  the  country,  went  in  search  of 
it,  during  his  visit  exercised  unheard-of  cruelties  upon  the 
natives,  and  was,  on  his  return,  slain  by  a  poisoned  arrow. 
Almost  the  whole  of  his  followers  fell  victims  to  the  Indians 
and  to  the  climate.  The  Welser,  nevertheless,  retained  pos- 
session of  Chili  until  the  German  colony  was  driven  out  by 
the  Spanish. — Philip  von  Hutten  of  Swabia  and  George  of 
Spires,  whose  accounts  are  still  extant,  assisted  at  the  same 
time  to  conquer  Mexico;  Schmidel  of  Straubing,  who  pub* 
lished  his  extraordinary  adventures,  aided  in  raising  Buenos 
Ayres,  1535.  The  account  given  by  the  Jesuit,  Strobe],  of 
his  sojourn  among  the  Patagonians,  at  the  southernmost 
point  of  America,  is  equally  interesting.  Marggravius  wrote 
an  account  of  the  natural  wonders  of  the  Brazils,  in  1644, 
and  Appollonius  another  of  Florida  and  Peru.  Fritz,  the 
German  Jesuit,  drew  out,  in  1690,  an  excellent  map  of  the 
river  Amazon,  where  he  established  the  first  mission  of  his 
order. 

The  study  of  geography  was,  in  the  fifteenth  century, 
greatly  promoted  by  Schweinheim  of  Mayence,  whose  charts 
were  published,  in  1478,  by  Bucking,  in  a  Ptolemaean  edi- 
tion at  Home.  They  are  the  first  printed  maps  on  record. 
Martin  Behaim's  globe  and  maps  of  the  world  were  anterior 
to  the  discovery  of  America.  The  sixteenth  century  boasted 
of  Apianus  (Bienewitz)  Gemma,  Loritus,  Sebastian  Munster, 
but  above  all,  of  the  Dutchman,  Mercator,  who  introduced 
the  division  of  maps  into  degrees;  the  seventeenth,  of  Cluver 
of  Dantzig,  who  greatly  facilitated  the  study  of  ancient  ge- 
ography. Merian,  the  indefatigable  engraver  of  Basel,  1651, 
who  published  copious  accounts  of  the  principal  countries 
of  Europe,  adorned  with  copper- plates,  was  the  best  topog- 
rapher of  the  age. 


AGE    OF  LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1139 


FOURTH  PERIOD 
MODERN    TIMES 


PART   XX 
THE   AGE   OF   LOUIS   THE    FOURTEENTH 


CCXXI.   Louis  the  Fourteenth 

THE  century  subsequent  to  the  peace  of  Westphalia  is 
distinguished  as  the  age  of  Louis  the  Fourteenth, 
that  monarch  being  the  sun  by  which  it  was  illu- 
mined, and  whose  splendor  was  reflected  by  all  the  courts 
of  Europe.  The  first  revolution  against  the  Middle  Ages 
was  accomplished  in  him,  by  his  subjection  of  the  interests 
of  the  aristocratic  and  inferior  classes  beneath  his  despotic 
rule.  He  said  with  truth  'Tetat  c'est  moi, "  for  entire 
France,  the  country  and  the  people,  their  arms,  and  even 
their  thoughts,  were  his.  The  sole  object  of  the  whole  na- 
tion was  to  do  the  will  of  their  sovereign;  "car  tel  est  notre 
plaisir"  was  the  usual  termination  to  his  commands.  The 
magnificent  chateau  of  Versailles,  the  abode  of  this  terres- 
trial deity,  was  peopled  with  mistresses  and  a  countless  troop 
of  parasites,  on  whom  the  gold  drawn  from  the  impover- 
ished and  oppressed  people  was  lavished.  The  nobility  and 
clergy,  long  subject  to  their  lord  and  king,  shared  the  license 
of  the  court  and  formed  a  numerous  band  of  courtiers,  while 
men  of  the  lower  classes,  whose  superior  parts  had  brought 
them  into  note,  were  attached  as  philosophers,   poets,  and 


1140  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

artists,  to  the  court,  the  monarch  extending  his  patronage 
to  every  art  and  science  prostituted  by  flattery. 

The  French  court,  although  externally  Catholic,  was  solely 
guided  by  the  tenets  of  the  new  philosophy,  which  were  spread 
over  the  rest  of  the  world  by  the  sonnets  of  anacreontic  poets 
and  the  bon-mots  of  court  savants.  This  philosophy  set  forth 
that  egotism  was  the  only  quality  natural  to  man,  that  virtues 
were  but  feigned,  or,  when  real,  ridiculous.  Freedom  from 
the  ancient  prejudices  of  honor  or  religion,  and  carelessness 
in  the  choice  of  means  for  the  attainment  of  an  object,  were 
regarded  as  proofs  of  genius.  Immorality  was  the  necessary 
accompaniment  of  talent.  Virtue  implied  stupidity;  the 
grossest  license,  the  greatest  wit.  Vice  became  the  mode, 
was  publicly  displayed  and  admired.  The  first  duty  imposed 
upon  knighthood,  the  protection  of  innocence,  was  exchanged 
for  seduction,  adultery,  or  nightly  orgies,  and  the  highest 
ambition  of  the  prince,  the  courtier  or  the  officer  was  to  en- 
rich the  chronique  scandaleuse  with  his  name.  A  courtier's 
honor  consisted  in  breaking  his  word,  in  deceiving  maidens 
and  cheating  creditors,  in  contracting  enormous  debts  and  in 
boasting  of  their  remaining  unpaid,  etc. ;  nor  was  this  de- 
moralization confined  to  private  life.  The  cabinet  of,  Ver- 
sailles, in  its  treatment  of  all  the  European  powers,  followed 
the  rules  of  this  modern  philosophy,  as  shown  in  the  conduct 
of  the  Parisian  cavalier  toward  the  citizens,  their  wives  and 
daughters,  by  the  practice  of  rudeness,  seduction,  robbery, 
and  every  dishonorable  art.  It  treated  laws,  treaties,  and 
truth  with  contempt,  and  ever  insisted  upon  its  own  infalli- 
bility. 

The  doctrine  that  a  prince  can  do  no  wrong  had  a  mag- 
ical effect  upon  the  other  sovereigns  of  Europe;  Louis  XIV. 
became  their  model,  and  the  object  to  which  most  of  them 
aspired,  the  attainment,  like  him,  of  deification  upon  earth. 
Even  Germany,  impoverished  and  weakened  by  her  recent 
struggle,  was  infected  with  this  universal  mania,  and,  in 
1656,  John  George  II.  began  to  act  the  part  of  a  miniature 
Louis  XIV.,  in  starving  and  desolate  Saxony.     A  splendid 


AGE    OF   LOUIS    TEE   FOURTEENTH  1141 

guard,  a  household  on  a  more  extensive  scale,  sumptuous 
fetes,  grandes  battues,  lion-hunts,  theatricals,  Italian  operas 
(a  new  mode,  for  which  singers  were,  at  great  expense,  im- 
ported from  Italy),  regattas  and  fireworks  on  the  Elbe,  the 
formation  of  expensive  cabinets  of  art  and  of  museums,  were 
to  raise  the  elector  of  Saxony  on  a  par  with  the  great  sov- 
ereign of  France,  and,  in  1660,  the  state  becoming  in  conse- 
quence bankrupt,  the  wretched  Estates  were  compelled  to 
wrest  the  sums  required  to  supply  the  pleasures  of  the  prince 
from  his  suffering  people.  To  him  succeeded,  in  1680,  John 
George  III.,  who  spent  all  he  possessed  on  his  troops;  then, 
in  1691,  John  George  IV.,  who  reigned  until  1694,  and 
whose  mistress,  Sibylla  von  Neidschutz,  reigned  conjointly 
with  her  mother"  over  the  country  and  plundered  the  people, 
while  his  minister,  Count  von  Hoymb,  openly  carried  on  a 
system  of  robbery  and  extortion. — In  Bavaria,  in  1679, 
Ferdinand  Maria  followed  the  example  of  Saxony.  The 
miseries  endured  by  the  people  during  the  thirty  years'  war 
were  forgotten  by  the  elector,  who  erected  Schleisheim  (Lit- 
tle Versailles),  and  Nymphenburg  (Little  Marly),  and  gave 
theatrical  entertainments  and  fetes,  according  to  the  French 
mode. — He  lived  in  most  extraordinary  splendor.  Two  hun- 
dredweight and  nineteen  pounds  of  gold  were  expended  on 
the  embroidery  alone  of  his  bed  of  state.  His  consort,  Adel- 
heid,  a  daughter  of  Victor  Amadeus  of  Savoy,  an  extremely 
bigoted  princess,  surpassed  his  extravagance  in  her  gifts  to 
the  churches.  She  long  remained  childless,  and,  on  the  birth 
of  that  traitor  to  Germany,  Maximilian  Emanuel,  caused  the 
celebrated  Theatin  church  at  Munich  to  be  built  by  an  Ital- 
ian architect.  She  died  before  its  completion,  and  it  was 
consequently  finished  on  a  less  magnificent  scale  than  the 
original  plan. 

Ancient  Spanish  dignity  was  still  maintained  in  the  old 
imperial  house.  Ferdinand  III.  closed  the  wounds  inflicted 
by  the  thirty  years'  war,  and  zealously  endeavored,  at  the 
diet  held  at  Nuremberg,  in  1653,  to  regulate  the  affairs 
of  the  empire,  the  imperial  chamber,  etc. ;  but  life  could  no 


1142  THE   HISTORY    OF    GERMANY 

longer  be  breathed  into  the  dead  body  of  the  state,  and  no 
emperor,  since  Ferdinand,  has  since  presided  in  person  over 
the  diet. — This  monarch  fell  sick  and  died  shortly  after  of 
fright,  occasioned  by  the  fall  of  one  of  his  guards,  who  had 
snatched  up  the  youngest  prince  in  order  to  save  him  from  a 
fire  that  had  burst  out  in  the  emperor's  chamber.  He  was 
succeeded  by  his  son,  Leopold  "with  the  thick  lip,"  who 
was  then  in  his  eighteenth  year.  This  prince,  whose  princi- 
pal amusement  during  his  childhood  had  been  the  erection  of 
miniature  altars,  the  adornment  of  figures  and  pictures  of 
saints,  etc.,  had,  under  the  tuition  of  the  Jesuit  Neidhart, 
grown  up  a  melancholy  bigot,  stiff,  unbending,  punctilious, 
and  grave,  devoid  of  life  or  energy. 

The  advantages  gained  by  Louis  XIV. ,  by  the  treaty  of 
Westphalia,  merely  inspired  him  with  a  desire  for  the  acqui- 
sition of  still  greater.  He  even  speculated  upon  gaining  pos- 
session of  the  imperial  throne,  and,  with  that  intent,  bribed 
several  of  the  princes,  the  elector,  Charles  Louis,  of  the  Pfalz 
(who  was  at  that  time  enraged  at  the  loss  of  the  Upper  Pfalz, 
and,  consequently,  lent  a  willing  ear  to  the  perfidious  coun- 
sels of  France),  with  a  gift  of  one  hundred  and  ten  thousand 
dollars,  and  Bavaria,  Cologne,  and  Mayence,  with  sums  sim- 
ilar in  amount.  Saxony  and  Brandenburg,  however,  with- 
stood the  temptation,  and  the  German  crown  was  rescued 
from  the  disgrace  of  adorning  the  brow  of  a  foreign  despot, 
of  Germany's  most  inveterate  foe,  to  be  placed  on  Leopold's 
peruke,  a  miserable  substitute  for  the  golden  locks  of  the 
Hohenstaufen. 

Louis,  in  revenge,  formed,  in  1658,  an  anti-imperial 
confederacy,  the  Lower  JRhenish  alliance.  John  Philip  von 
Schcenborn,  elector  of  Mayence  and  arch-chancellor  of  the 
empire,  and  his  influential  minister,  Boineburg,  who,  bribed 
by  every  court,  played  a  double  game,  were  particularly 
active  in  forwarding  his  views,  and  conscientiously  compen- 
sated France  for  the  part  they  had  taken  in  the  election  of 
the  emperor,  by  the  Khenish  confederation.  The  elector  of 
Cologne,  the  bishop  of  Munster,  the  princes  of  Brunswick- 


AGE    OF   LOUIS    TEE   FOURTEENTH  1143 

Luneburg  and  Hesse-Cassel  were  equally  regardless  of  their 
honor,  and  with  Eberhard  of  Wurtemberg  (notwithstanding 
the  opposition  of  his  patriotic  provincial  Estates)  counte- 
nanced the  predatory  schemes  of  the  French  monarch.  The 
conduct  of  the  Guelphs  at  that  period  was  still  more  notori- 
ously base.  The  sons  of  George  von  Luneburg,  who  had 
succeeded  him  in  Calenberg  and  Gcettingen,  and  their  uncle, 
Frederick,  in  1648,  in  Luneburg- Celle,  divided  these  prov- 
inces between  them,  the  eldest,  Christian  Louis,  taking  Lune- 
burg-Celle,  the  second,  George  William,  Calenberg-Gcettin- 
gen.  The  latter  was  generally  out  of  the  country,  in  Italy 
or  in  France,  where  he  imbibed  all  the  vices  of  the  court  of 
Versailles.  Both  the  brothers  were  drawn  over  to  the  Gallo- 
papal  party  by  their  third  brother,  John  Frederick,  who 
made  a  public  profession  of  Catholicism  at  Assisi  and  held 
a  conference  with  his  elder  brothers,  in  1652,  in  Perugia. 
In  1665,  he  came  to  Germany  and  received  Hanover,  in  ex- 
change, from  George  William.  The  Catholic  form  of  service 
was  instantly  re-established.  The  Hanoverian  Estates  were 
dismissed  with  the  words,  "I  am  emperor  in  my  territories." 
He  received  a  monthly  pension  from  France  of  ten  thousand 
dollars.  The  fourth  brother,1  Ernest  Augustus,  who  after- 
ward succeeded  to  the  whole  of  the  family  possessions,  was 
the  only  one  faithful  to  the  imperial  cause.  The  object  of 
the  Rhenish  alliance  was  to  hinder  the  emperor  from  inter- 
fering with  the  projects  of  France  upon  the  Spanish  Nether- 
lands, and  with  those  of  Sweden  upon  Brandenburg.  The 
attention  of  the  youthful  emperor  was,  moreover,  also  at 
the  instigation  of  France,  occupied  with  a  fresh  attack  on 
the  part  of  Turkey.  Louis  had  thus  spread  his  net  on  all 
sides. 

His  first  acquisition  was  a  portion  of  the  Netherlands, 
which  he  annexed,  in  1653,  to  France.     The  war  between 

1  When  a  poor  pnuce.  he  married,  in  1658,  Sophia,  the  daughter  of  tho 
winter-king,  Frederick,  and  of  the  beautiful  Elisabeth  Stuart,  whose  brother, 
Charles  I.,  was  beheaded.  And  yet  Ernest  Augustus  inherited  the  whole  of 
the  possessions  of  his  childless  brothers,  and  his  sou,  George,  shortly  afterward 
mounted  the  throne  of  England. 


1144  THE   HISTORY   OF    GERMANY 

France  and  Spain  had  been  renewed  with  great  vigor  in 
1653.  The  great  Conde,  at  that  time  at  strife  with  the  still 
omnipotent  minister,  Mazarin,  and  supported  by  the  Duke  of 
Lorraine,  had  rebelled,  had  been  defeated  by  Turenne,  and 
had  fled  to  the  Netherlands,  where  he  fought  at  the  head  of 
the  Spaniards  (as  once  Charles  de  Bourbon)  against  his  coun- 
trymen. His  invasion  of  Picardy  was  checked  by  Turenne. 
Spain  robbed  herself  of  a  faithful  confederate  in  Charles  of 
Lorraine,  who  lived  riotously  at  Brussels,  where  he  gained 
such  popularity  as  to  excite  the  jealousy  of  the  Spanish  au- 
thorities; this  greatly  diverted  him,  and  he  purposely  gave 
them  offence,  upon  which  Count  Fuendelsagna,  forgetful  of 
the  fidelity  with  which  he  had  long  served  against  France, 
caused  him  to  be  arrested  and  to  be  sent  to  Spain,  in  1654. 
Louis  instantly  rose  in  his  defence,  attacked  the  Netherlands 
and  entered  into  alliance  with  Cromwell,  who  was  then  at 
the  head  of  the  English  republic,  against  Spain.  Conde'  was 
victorious  at  Valenciennes,  in  1656,  but  the  empire  offered 
no  aid  to  the  Netherlands.  The  French  besieged  Dunkirk 
(which  had  fallen  into  their  hands  in  1646  and  had  been 
again  ceded  by  the  treaty  of  Westphalia)  for  England,  as 
the  price  of  Cromwell's  alliance;  Conde"  attempted  to  re- 
lieve the  city,  but  was  surprised  and  defeated  by  Turenne  in 
the  dams,  1658.  The  treaty  of  the  Pyrenees  followed,  by 
which  Arras,  Hesdin,  and  other  towns  were  ceded  to  France, 
the  Infanta,  Maria  Theresa  of  Spain,  was  given  in  marriage 
to  Louis,  with  a  dowry  of  three  hundred  thousand  crowns  of 
gold,  and  the  Duke  of  Lorraine,  who  naturally  ever  after- 
ward sided  with  France,  was  restored  to  liberty.  Dunkirk 
fell  to  England,  but,  on  Cromwell's  death,  was  purchased  by 
Louis  from  Charles  II.  and  strongly  garrisoned  with  French; 
and   Dunkirk,'  as  the  name  proves,   a  genuinely  German 

1  The  Diinen,  or  dams,  are  high,  broad  walls  of  sand  that  protect  the  damp 
bank  against  the  violence  of  the  waves.  Stakes  are  run  into  the  ground,  and 
osiers,  branches,  and  wisps  of  straw  are  woven  between  them.  The  sea-sand 
gradually  settles  in  the  interstices,  and  a  second  layer  is  then  raised.  Sea-grass, 
which  quickly  springs  up  and  binds  the  sand  with  its  roots,  is  then  sown  on  the 
wall  top. 


AGE   OF   LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1145 

town,  the  western  frontier  town  on  the  Northern  Ocean, 
with  its  splendid  harbor,  was  thus  lost  to  Germany  and  sold 
by  one  foreign  sovereign  to  another. 

In  Sweden,  the  Queen  Christina,  a  voluptuous  and  fan- 
tastical woman,  had,  from  vanity  and  a  love  of  eccentricity, 
turned  Catholic,  voluntarily  abdicated,  in  1654,  in  favor  of 
Charles  Gustavus,  prince  of  Pfalz-Zweibriicken-Birkenfeld, 
who  had,  during  the  thirty  years'  war,  acquired  great  popu- 
larity among  the  Swedes,  and  fixed  her  residence  at  Rome. 
On  reaching  Innsbruck,  on  her  way  thither,  she  unblushingly 
made  a  public  confession  of  Catholicism.  She  entered  Borne 
in  a  triumphal  procession,  borne  in  a  sumptuous  litter,  ac- 
companied by  the  archdukes,  Ferdinand  Charles  and  Sig- 
mund  Francis,  on  horseback;  the  papal  legate,  who  had 
come  to  meet  her  in  order  to  welcome  her  to  the  bosom  of 
the  holy  church,  was  an  adventurer  from  Hamburg,  named 
Lucas  Holstein.  She  afterward  laid  her  crown  and  sceptre  on 
the  shrine  of  the  Virgin  at  Loretto,  observing  of  her  crown, 
as  she  did  so,  "Ne  mi  bisogna,  ne  mi  basta. "  On  the  death 
of  Charles  Gustavus  she  attempted  to  reascend  the  Swedish 
throne. 

Charles  Gustavus,  ambitious  of  earning  a  fame  equal  to 
that  of  his  great  predecessor,  Gustavus  Adolphus,  immedi- 
ately on  his  accession  declared  war  against  Poland,  but  had 
scarcely  landed  ere  the  Russians,  under  their  Grandduke 
Michael,  invaded  Livonia.  Dantzig  resisted  the  Swedes, 
while  Riga,  the  natural  maritime  city  of  Poland,  with  which 
she  was  closely  allied  by  her  material  interests,  made  a  val- 
iant defence  against  the  Russians,  who,  being  finally  com- 
pelled to  raise  the  siege,  revenged  their  disgrace  by  treating 
the  country  people  with  the  most  atrocious  cruelty.  Women 
and  children  were  roasted  alive,  mutilated,  and  spitted  on 
pikes,  etc. 

Courland  was  garrisoned  by  Charles  Gustavus,  who  ad- 
vanced into  Poland.  Frederick  William,  elector  of  Bran- 
denburg, actuated  by  a  hope  of  gaining  possession  of 
Swedish  Pomerania,  at  first  aided   Casimir  of  Poland,  but 


1146  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

fortune  no  sooner  declared  in  favor  of  Sweden  than  the 
wily  elector  ranged  himself  on  that  side  and  assisted  Charles 
Gustavus  in  defeating  the  Poles  near  Warsaw,  immediately 
after  which  he  again  offered  peace  and  his  alliance  to  Casi- 
mir  on  condition  of  that  monarch's  relinquishing  his  feudal 
right  over  the  duchy  of  Prussia.  A  treaty  was  concluded, 
in  1657,  to  this  effect  at  Welau,  and  the  elector,  in  order 
to  secure  himself  from  the  vengeance  of  the  Swedes,  incited 
the  Danes  and  Dutch  to  attack  them  and  entered  into  alli- 
ance with  the  emperor,  Leopold,  who  despatched  General 
Montecuculi  to  his  aid,  and  the  new  allies  took  possession 
of  Swedish  Pomerania,  while  Charles  Gustavus  crossed  the 
Belt  on  the  ice  (two  companies  alone  were  drowned),  be- 
sieged Copenhagen  and  compelled  Denmark  to  sign  a  treaty 
of  peace,  in  1658,  which,  on  his  return,  was  instantly  in- 
fringed, Denmark  finding  a  new  and  potent  ally  in  Holland, 
which  beheld  the  naval  power  of  Sweden  with  jealousy,  and 
whose  victorious  fleet,  commanded  by  de  Ruyter,  forced  its 
way  through  the  Sound  and  almost  annihilated  that  of  Swe- 
den under  the  eye  of  the  king,  who  viewed  the  engagement 
from  the  fortress  of  Kronenburg.  This  disaster  proved  fatal 
to  him.  The  treaty  of  Oliva  was  concluded  shortly  after 
his  death  in  1660.  The  terms  of  this  treaty  were,  notwith- 
standing, favorable  to  Sweden  and  prove  the  respect  uni- 
versally felt  for  her  power,  Livonia,  Esthonia,  and  ffisel 
remaining  in  her  possession  and  the  great  elector  being  com- 
pelled to  relinquish  Swedish  Pomerania.  Charles  Gustavus 
had  also  succeeded  in  separating  the  Gottorp  branch  of  the 
Danish  (Oldenburg)  house  from  the  royal  line  of  Denmark. 
Christian  Albert,  duke  of  Schleswig-Holstein,  formerly  vas- 
sal to  his  cousin,  the  Danish  monarch,  raised  himself,  with 
Sweden's  aid,  to  sovereign  power. 

The  Rhenish  alliance,  against  which  Frederick  William 
had  energetically  and  publicly  protested,  was  invalidated  by 
the  conclusion  of  peace.  Frederick  William,  in  his  mani- 
festo, called  upon  the  Germans  to  protect  Poland  "as  one 
of  the  bulwarks  of  the  empire."    His  actions,  however,  little 


AGE    OF  LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1147 

accorded  with  his  words — he  aided  to  ruin  that  country  for 
the  sake  of  a  trifling  advantage. 

France,  increasing  in  her  endeavors  to  disturb  the  peace 
of  Germany,  again  incited  Turkey  to  the  attack,  and  in 
1663  the  grand  vizier,  Kiuprili,  penetrated  as  far  as  Olmutz 
in  Moravia,  laying  the  country  waste  as  he  advanced.  Fort- 
une had,  however,  given  the  emperor  an  admirable  general 
in  Montecuculi,  by  whom  the  Turkish  army  was  completely 
routed  in  a  pitched  battle  near  St.  Gotthard  in  1664. 
Montecuculi's  favorite  saying  was,  "Three  things  alone  in- 
sure victory,  gold,  gold,  gold  I"  and  by  this  means  he  cer- 
tainly succeeded  in  enchaining  her  to  his  banner. 

CCXXIL    The  Swiss  Peasant   War 

The  thirty  years'  war  had  excited  the  passions  of  the 
Swiss  without  producing  any  immediate  or  open  demonstra- 
tion. The  wealth  brought  for  security  into  the  Alps  by  the 
innumerable  German  refugees  had  introduced  luxuries  among 
the  mountaineers,  which  were  favored  by  the  more  specula- 
tive inhabitants  of  the  cities,  who  lent  the  peasant  money 
on  his  land,  and,  by  making  him  their  debtor,  and,  conse- 
quently, personally  dependent,  destroyed  his  political  liberty. 
On  the  termination  of  the  thirty  years'  war  and  the  conse- 
quent return  of  the  German  refugees  to  their  native  country, 
money  became  gradually  more  scarce,  and  the  situation  of 
the  peasantry  more  deplorable.  Jacob  Wagenmann  of  Sur- 
see  wrote  at  this  period,  "consequently,  driven  to  despair, 
war  appeared  to  them  to  offer  the  only  means  by  which  they 
could  at  once  and  completely  wipe  off  their  debts.  A  pretext 
was  not  long  wanting.  They  declared  that  the  provincial 
governors  were  too  severe,  which  was  sometimes  the  case, 
and  that  the  laws  favored  the  interests  of  their  rulers  more 
than  justice  and  the  public  weal. ' '  The  people  of  Entlibuch, 
who  were  dependent  on  Lucerne,  and  those  of  the  Emmen- 
thal,  who  were  subservient  to  Berne,  were,  moreover,  jealous 
of  the  privileges  enjoyed  by  their  nearest  neighbors  in  Unter- 


1148  THE   HISTORY   OF    GERMANY 

walden  and  Schwyz,  to  which  they  claimed,  owing  to  their 
similarity  in  descent  and  occupation  and  their  close  vicinity, 
an  equal  right.  The  prevalence  of  this  feeling  among  the 
people  was  apparent  on  the  first  appearance  of  the  Entlibuch 
insurgents,  who  were  headed  by  three  athletic  men,  dressed 
in  the  ancient  costume,  as  Walther  Furst,  Stauffacher,  and 
Melchthal. 

The  revolt  broke  out  in  1653,  in  Entlibuch,  on  Emmen- 
egger's  protest  against  the  depreciation  of  the  small  coin, 
and  on  the  threat  of  Krebsinger,  the  president  of  the  council 
of  Berne,  "that  he  would  place  five  hundred  invulnerable 
Italians  on  the  necks  of  the  rebellious  peasantry."  The  out- 
rages committed  by  the  soldiery  during  the  thirty  years'  war 
were  still  fresh  in  the  minds  of  the  people,  and  the  impres- 
sion produced  by  this  threat  is  therefore  easily  conceivable. 
The  first  outburst  of  their  rage  was  vented  on  the  Lucerne 
bailiffs,  whom  they  expelled  the  valley.  They  then  flew  to 
arms  and  struck  such  terror  into  the  citizens  that  messengers 
of  peace  were  instantly  sent  to  recall  them  to  obedience  and 
to  represent  to  them  that  "their  authority  was  from  God,"  to 
which  Krummenacher,  a  powerful-looking  peasant,  growled 
out  in  reply,  "Yes,  it  is  from  God,  when  you  act  justly,  but 
from  the  devil  when  you  act  with  injustice."  The  city  made 
some  concessions  and  a  reconciliation  took  place.  The  aris- 
tocracy of  Berne,  ever  on  the  alert,  had,  meanwhile,  pre- 
pared for  war,  and,  by  their  overcaution,  drew  upon  them- 
selves the  calamity  they  sought  to  avoid;  the  Bernese 
arrier-ban  refusing  to  take  the  field  against  the  people  of 
Entlibuch,  and  their  disobedience  affording  the  Bernese 
peasantry  an  opportunity  for  revolt.  Two  parties,  the  Mod- 
erates (Linden),  and  the  Radicals  (Harten),  sprang  up;  the 
latter  formed  themselves  into  a  provincial  assembly,  and 
placed  Niklaus  Leuenberg,  a  man  of  great  eloquence,  at 
their  head.  The  aristocracy  of  Basel  now  committed  a  blun- 
der similar  to  that  of  Berne  by  sending  five  hundred  soldiers 
across  the  Jura  to  Aargau.  Their  numbers,  increased  by 
rumor,  spread  terror  through  the  country ;  the  Aargau  rose 


AQE   OF   LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1149 

in  self-defence  and  gained  an  easy  victory.  Berne  was,  not- 
withstanding, restored  to  tranquillity  by  the  intervention  of 
the  confederation.  Some  disturbances  also  took  place  in 
Solothurn,  where  the  government  willingly  made  conces- 
sions. Basel  granted  the  demands  of  the  insurgent  peas- 
antry of  Liestal,  and  peace  and  confidence  were  apparently 
restored  on  all  sides. 

The  contest,  however,  broke  out  afresh.  Wagenmann, 
the  peasants'  foe,  relates,  that  "the  village  magnates  of 
Entlibuch,  whose  authority  had  lasted  two  months,  resolved 
not  to  part  with  the  power  they  had  gained.  The  people  of 
Willisau  declared  that  they  had  been  unable,  owing  to  the 
trumpets  having  been  sounded  purposely  at  the  moment 
when  the  treaty  was  read,  clearly  to  comprehend  the  purport 
of  its  fifth  article,  by  which  all  offices  were  placed  in  the  gift 
of  the  government,"  and  a  proclamation  published  at  the 
same  time  by  the  deliberative  council,  in  which  the  peasants 
were  designated  as  rebels,  and  charged  with  the  whole  blame, 
rendered  them  extremely  distrustful  of  the  sincerity  of  their 
governments  in  subscribing  to  the  articles  of  peace,  and  the 
aristocracy  in  all  the  cantons  being  apparently  ranged  in 
opposition  to  them,  the  whole  of  the  peasantry  confederated 
and  invited  their  brethren  in  all  the  cantons,  without  refer- 
ence to  religion,  to  assemble  on  the  23d  of  April,  1653,  in 
the  forest  of  Sumis  in  the  canton  of  Berne.  Leuenberg 
was,  against  his  will,  compelled  to  preside  over  the  meeting. 
Their  first  object,  an  alliance  with  the  ancient  confederated 
peasantry  in  the  original  cantons,  failed;  the  haughty  peas- 
ants of  Uri  refusing  to  have  aught  in  common  with  the 
herdsmen  of  Entlibuch.  Leuenberg's  despatches  were  scorn- 
fully returned. 

The  dread  of  the  arrival  of  foreign  troops  now  revived 
with  redoubled  force,  and  the  apprehensions  of  the  peasantry 
being  strengthened  by  the  discovery  of  some  grenades  on 
board  a  vessel,  laden  with  ironware,  seized  by  them  on  the 
Aar,  they  took  up  arms,  in  order  to  defend  themselves 
against  their  imaginary  foes. 


1150  THE   HISTORY  OF   GERMANY 

The  governments,  hereupon,  prepared  in  earnest  for  op- 
position, and,  taking  advantage  of  a  letter  addressed  by  the 
French  ambassador  to  Leuenberg,  in  which  he  declared  him 
responsible  in  case  the  Austrians  seized  the  opportunity,  pre- 
sented by  the  disturbed  state  of  the  country,  to  cross  the 
frontier,  converted  the  question,  until  now  simply  internal 
and  aristocratic,  into  an  external  and  patriotic  one,  and  des- 
ignated the  peasants,  not  as  foes  to  the  aristocracy,  but  as 
traitors  to  their  country.  The  peasants,  half-conscious  of 
being  outwitted,  were,  consequently,  more  highly  infuriated, 
and  war  was  rendered  inevitable  by  the  formidable  prepara- 
tions made  by  Berne,  Lucerne,  Basel,  and  Zurich,  to  which 
the  peasantry  on  the  lake  caused  great  alarm. 

A  stratagem,  favored  by  chance,  opened  the  passes  occu- 
pied by  the  peasantry  to  the  government  troops  and  frus- 
trated their  plan  of  warfare.  The  steward  of.  a  Bernese 
noble,  whom  curiosity  had  led  too  close  to  the  scene  of  oper- 
ations, was  taken  prisoner  by  the  peasants,  and,  by  accident, 
overheard  a  conference  between  Leuenberg  and  his  com- 
mander-in-chief, Schybi,  and,  on  regaining  his  liberty,  laid 
Schybi's  well-schemed  plan  of  battle  before  the  Zurichers. 
About  six  thousand  Bernese  troops,  coming  from  Vaud* 
being  stopped  by  Leuenberg  at  the  pass  near  Gummenen, 
Durheim,  the  Bernese  provincial  governor,  craftily  spread  a 
report  that  Leuenberg  and  the  whole  of  his  troops  had  em- 
braced Catholicism  and  that  the  sole  object  of  the  insurgents 
was  to  betray  the  Bernese  to  the  pope.  The  Protestant  peas- 
ants guarding  the  pass,  terrified  at  this  rumor,  fled,  and  the 
pass  was  instantly  occupied  by  the  Bernese.  The  govern- 
ment of  Lucerne,  with  equal  subtlety,  retained  their  hold 
over  their  bigoted  Catholic  subjects  by  publishing  a  mani- 
festo from  the  clergy,  in  which  the  war  against  the  insur- 
gent peasantry  was  declared  agreeable  to  the  Divine  will. 

General  Werdmuller  of  Zurich  at  length  took  the  field  at 
the  head  of  some  well-disciplined  troops,  with  a  fine  body 
of  cavalry  and  a  park  of  artillery,  against  the  numerous  but 
ill-armed  peasantry.      At  Ottmarsingen,  in  the  vicinity  of 


AGE   OF   LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1151 

Lenzburg,  he  came  up  with  a  body  of  about  fifteen  hundred 
armed  insurgents,  posted  in  a  wood,  and  strongly  barricaded. 
Werdmuller  halted  his  troops,  and,  some  of  the  peasant  lead- 
ers coming  forward,  he  demanded,  "Why  they  had  taken  up 
arms?"  They  replied  that  "peace  was  their  greatest  desire; 
that  they  would  instantly  lay  down  their  arms  on  the  res- 
toration of  the  privileges  and  rights  they  had  enjoyed  for  a 
century  past,  and  of  which  they  had  been  deprived,  and  that 
they  would  oppose  violence  by  violence.  Death  could  hap- 
pen but  once!"  A  pitched  battle  was  fought  a  few  days 
afterward  at  Wohlenschwyl.  The  peasantry  defended  the 
burning  village  under  a  heavy  cannonade,  until  late  at  night, 
when  both  parties  retreated  to  their  camps.  The  peasantry, 
however,  perceiving  their  inability  to  cope  with  regular  troop3 
and  artillery,  acceded,  in  1653,  to  the  terms  of  peace  pro- 
posed by  the  general,  which  deceitfully  provided  that  "any- 
thing relating  further  to  the  government  or  to  their  subjects, 
should,  in  default  of  an  amicable  arrangement,  be  regulated 
by  the  law."  This  article  inspired  the  peasantry  with  the 
vain  hope  of  an  amicable  adjustment  of  differences,  while  it 
reserved  to  the  cities  the  power  of  refusing,  and  also  that  of 
referring  to  the  law,  that  is,  to  the  penal  code.  The  peas- 
ants were  at  first  treated  with  great  apparent  friendship,  and 
Leuenberg  dined  in  public  with  the  general.  Vengeance, 
nevertheless,  did  not  tarry. 

The  peasantry  of  Entlibuch,  mistrusting  the  peace,  ad- 
vised their  Bernese  brethren  not  to  accede  to  the  terms, 
and,  finding  themselves  unheeded,  withdrew.  Although 
surrounded  on  every  side,  they  defended  themselves  in  Ent- 
libuch with  most  unflinching  bravery,  but  were  finally  com- 
pelled to  yield.     Their  leaders  were  thrown  into  prison. 

Some  of  the  Bernese  peasantry  having  marched  to  the  as- 
sistance of  their  brethren  in  Entlibuch,  but  without  taking 
part  in  the  contest,  the  government  seized  the  opportunity 
to  infringe  the  treaty  of  Wohlenschwyl  and  to  take  their  re- 
venge on  the  Bernese,  who  had  been  greatly  weakened  by 
the  defeat  of  the  people  of  Entlibuch,  and,  in  order  to  strike 


1152  THE    HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

them  with  terror,  von  Erlach  marched  with  a  considerable 
force  from  Berne  to  Wangen,  burning,  murdering,  plunder- 
ing, etc.,  like  a  horde  of  barbarians.  Leuenberg  instantly 
wrote  a  letter  to  Werdmuller,  in  which  he  called  upon  him 
to  maintain  the  treaty  and  charged  him  and  Erlach  with 
the  crime  of  renewing  the  war.  He  then  took  the  field 
with  five  thousand  Emmenthal  peasants  aginst  Erlach, 
but,  ill-armed  and  overpowered  by  numbers,  they  suffered 
a  total  defeat,  and  he  was  shortly  afterward  betrayed  by  a 
peasant,  who  was  consequently  pardoned,  into  the  hands  of 
his  enemies.  ^ 

Werdmuller  vainly  endeavored  to  interpret  the  treaty, 
concluded  by  him  at  Wohlenschwyl,  in  the  peasants'  favor; 
the  city  councils  were  intent  upon  revenge,  and  a  fearful 
tribunal  was  held  in  every  place  where  the  peasants  had 
been  captured.  Torture,  hanging,  beheading,  quartering, 
splitting  of  tongues  and  ears,  slavery  on  the  Venetian  gal- 
lays,  long  imprisonment  and  hard  labor,  were  the  modes  of 
punishment  resorted  to.  Basel,  although  exposed  to  little 
danger  during  the  war,  acted  with  the  greatest  severity, 
and  Solothurn  with  the  greatest  lenity  intermixed  with  base- 
ness, the  lives  of  the  peasantry  of  that  canton  being  spared 
on  payment  of  an  enormous  fine.  The  council  of  Solothurn, 
ever  greedy  of  gain,  also  entered  at  that  time  into  a  separate 
alliance  with  France.  The  popular  leaders  were  treated  with 
peculiar  barbarity.  The  gallant  Schybi,  a  handsome  athletic 
man,  endured  the  severest  torture  without  a  murmur.  Leuen- 
berg' s  head  was  stuck,  with  the  letter  of  confederation,  on 
the  gallows,  and  his  quartered  body  was  hung  up  in  four 
parts  of  the  country. 

The  treaty  of  Wohlenschwyl  was  partially  recognized  by 
a  court  of  arbitration  formed  by  the  confederation,  and  a 
few  concessions  were  assured  to  the  peasantry;  the  different 
governments,  nevertheless,  delayed  their  confirmation  under 
various  pretexts.  The  patience  of  the  Entlibuch  peasantry 
was  at  length  exhausted,  and  the  three  Tells,  the  men  who, 
on  the  first  rising  of  the  people  of  Entlibuch,  had  personated 


AOE   OF   LOUIS    TEE   FOURTEENTH  1153 

the  three  ancient  Swiss  patriots  of  the  Grutli,  waylaid,  in 
imitation  of  William  Tell,  some  Lucerne  councillors,  when 
passing  along  a  deep  road,  shot  one  and  wounded  the  rest. 
Their  arrest  being  attempted,  they  desperately  defended  them- 
selves within  their  cottage  and  were  at  length  shot  by  their 
assailants.  This  incident,  however,  induced  Lucerne  at  length 
to  announce  the  stipulated  concessions  to  Entlibuch. 

Success  increased  the  arrogance  of  the  cities,  which 
haughtily  extended  their  claims  even  over  the  free  peas- 
antry of  the  original  cantons.  It  was  no  longer  with  a 
purely  religious  motive  that  Zurich  and  Berne  took  the  part 
of  some  families  expelled  on  account  of  their  faith  from 
Schwyz,  prescribed  laws  to  that  canton,  and,  at  length,  de- 
clared war  against  it;  fanatical  zeal  had  cooled,  the  proud 
citizen  solely  took  up  arms  for  the  reduction  of  his  peasant 
brother.  The  Catholics,  nevertheless,  confederated  in  1656, 
and  the  Reformers  were  totally  routed  at  Villmergen. 

CCXXIII.   Holland  in  Distress 

Holland,  actuated  by  commercial  jealousy,  wasted  her 
strength  in  a  ruinous  contest  with  England  instead  of  set- 
ting a  limit  to  the  encroachments  of  France.  The  stadt- 
holder,  William  of  Orange,  in  1647,  depended  upon  the 
soldiery  for  the  maintenance  of  the  prosperity  of  the  coun- 
try: the  republican  party,  upon  commerce  and  the  navy. 
At  the  head  of  this  party  stood  Jacob  de  Witt,  who,  to- 
gether with  five  other  members  of  the  states-general,  was 
arrested  at  William's  command  in  1650;  but  William  ex- 
piring shortly  afterward,  and  his  son,  William,  being  born 
eight  days  after  his  death,  the  republican  party,  headed  by 
John,  the  son  of  Jacob  de  Witt,  regained  their  former  power. 
John,  at  that  time  compelled  to  carry  on  a  severe  contest 
with  England,  neglected  to  take  the  necessary  precautions 
against  France,  to  keep  up  the  fortresses  and  to  maintain 
the  army.  The  passing  of  Cromwell's  Navigation  Act,  in 
1651,  by  which  foreign  vessels,  laden  with  native  produce, 


1154  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

were  alone  allowed  to  enter  English  ports,  caused  great  det- 
riment to  Holland,  whick  at  that  time  monopolized  almost 
the  whole  of  the  continental  trade,  and  a  struggle  conse- 
quently ensued  between  her  and  England  for  the  rule  of 
the  sea.  Holland  was  still  at  the  height  of  her  power.  She 
numbered  ten  thousand  merchantmen,  one  hundred  and 
sixty-eight  thousand  sailors.  Her  admirals  were  the  vet- 
eran Tromp,  the  brave  de  ftuyter,  who  had  commenced  life 
as  a  poor  sailor,  the  proud  Cornelius  de  Witt,  who  had  re- 
nounced the  mild  doctrines  of  the  Mennonites,  in  which  he 
had  been  educated,  for  the  sake  of  thrashing  a  person  who 
had  insulted  him;  the  brothers  Evertsen  and  van  Galen. 
The  English  admirals  were  Blake,  Monk,  Askew,  and  Ap- 
pleton.  The  great  naval  war  began  in  1651.  Tromp  was 
victorious  off  Dover,  de  Kuyter  off  Plymouth,  but  both  were, 
in  a  third  engagement,  defeated,  owing  to  a  disagreement 
between  them  and  de  Witt.  In  1652  Tromp  gained  a  brill- 
iant victory  over  the  English  under  Blake  and  fixed  a  broom 
at  his  masthead,  in  sign  of  his  having  swept  the  sea  clear 
from  every  foe.  The  English  now  exerted  their  utmost 
strength,  and,  in  a  fresh  engagement,  that  took  place  in 
the  ensuing  year,  victory  was  claimed  by  both  sides.  Van 
Galen,  however,  succeeded  in  beating  Appleton  off  Livorno. 
He  was  struck  with  a  cannon-ball  and  expired,  exclaiming, 
"It  is  easy  to  die  for  one's  country,  when  crowned  with  vic- 
tory!" The  veteran  Tromp,  the  father  of  the  navy,  was  de- 
feated and  killed  off  Dunkirk.  Eight  captains  and  several 
lieutenants,  whose  negligence  had  mainly  caused  this  mis- 
fortune, were  punished  with  republican  severity,  some  of 
them  being  thrice  keelhauled,  the  punishment  always  in- 
flicted by  Van  Tromp  upon  cowards. 

Peace  was  concluded,  in  1654,  between  England  and 
Holland,  whose  common  interests  led  them  to  oppose  the 
princes,  and  the  reigning  faction  in  Holland  resolved,  for 
the  better  preservation  of  the  democracy,  that,  for  the  fu- 
ture, no  Prince  of  Orange  should  rule  as  stadtholder  over 
Holland ;  but  on  the  restoration  of  the  Stuart  dynasty  in  Eng- 


AGE   OF   LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1155 

land,  the  Orange  party  rose  again  in  Holland,  repealed  the 
decree  of  1654,  and  elected  William  as  their  future  stadt- 
holder.  John  de  Witt  yielded,  and  dreading,  at  this  period 
of  universal  reaction,  to  disoblige  the  English  monarch,  de- 
livered up  to  him  some  English  members  of  parliament,  who 
had  formerly  voted  for  the  execution  of  Charles  I.  The 
war,  nevertheless,  again  broke  out.  The  commercial  inter- 
ests of  the  English  and  Dutch  were  opposed  to  each  other 
in  every  quarter  of  the  globe,  and  the  former,  numerically 
superior,  regarded  the  colonies  of  the  latter  with  a  covetous 
eye.  These  important  colonies  lay  too  scattered  to  be  easily 
maintained.  During  the  short  peace  between  Holland  and 
England,  Charles  II. ,  who  had  wedded  a  Portuguese  prin- 
cess, brought  about  a  treaty  with  Portugal,  to  which  Hol- 
land ceded  the  Brazils,  after  losing  almost  the  whole  of  her 
fleet.  The  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  colonized,  in  1648,  by  Rie- 
beck,  so  important  for  the  trade  with  the  East  Indies,  was, 
on  the  other  hand,  raised  to  a  higher  degree  of  prosperity, 
and  the  Dutch,  after  extending  their  trade  along  the  Mala- 
bar coast  as  far  as  Persia,  took  possession  of  Ceylon,  etc. 
Holland,  after  the  cession  of  the  Brazils,  being  unable  to 
resolve  upon  that  of  her  colonies  in  North  America,  whose 
possession  was  coveted  by  England,  war  again  broke  out  be- 
tween the  rival  powers  in  1664.  England  seized  the  Dutch 
colonies  on  the  eastern  coast  of  North  America  and  converted 
the  city  of  New  Amsterdam  into  that  of  New  York.  Wase- 
naar  was  defeated  on  the  English  coast,  and  his  ship  blown 
into  the  air.  De  Ruyter  was  at  that  time  absent  in  Africa. 
The  naval  power  of  Holland  rose  on  his  return,  and  a  fear- 
ful revenge  was  taken,  in  1666,  in  an  engagement  off  the 
Ei.  qrlish  coast,  which  lasted  four  days,  and  in  which  the 
En^  hsh,  with  whom  the  Pfalzgraf  Rupert  fought,  lost 
twenty-three  ships;  six  thousand  men  were  killed,  and 
three  thousand  made  prisoners.  This  was  de  Ruyter' s 
most  difficult  and  greatest  triumph,  in  which  he  was  aided 
by  the  younger  Tromp  and  Cornelius  Evertsen,  the  latter 
of  whom    fell    and    was    replaced    by   his   brother  John, 


1156  THE   HISTORY   OF    GERMANY 

who  had  retired  into  private  life,  and  whose  father,  son, 
and  four  brothers  had  already  fallen  for  their  country,  a 
fate  he  himself  shared  in  the  next  engagement.  In  the  en- 
suing year,  de  Kuyter  and  Cornelius,  John  de  Witt's  brother, 
sailed  up  the  Thames,  laid  waste  the  coast  almost  as  far  as 
London,  the  English  having  been  driven  from  the  sea,  and 
burned  several  English  ships  at  Chatham,  taking  possession 
of  the  Thames  from  the  North  Foreland  and  Margate  as  far 
as  the  Nore.  The  English  were  compelled  to  accede  to  the 
terms  of  peace  proposed  by  her  victorious  rival,  at  Breda, 
in  1667,  and  the  Navigation  Act  was  suspended  in  regard 
to  Dutch  cargoes. 

France  beheld  these  disputes  between  her  neighbors, 
which  she  stimulated  to  the  utmost  in  her  power,  with  de- 
light, and,  meanwhile,  projected  the  seizure  of  the  Spanish 
Netherlands.  Spain  was  rapidly  on  the  decline.  The  sys- 
tem pursued  by  Philip  II.  had  been  productive  of  evil  to  his 
successors.  The  monarch  slumbered  in  the  arms  of  the 
church,  the  navy  fell  to  pieces,  the  army  into  rags.  The 
provincial  Estates  in  the  Netherlands  had  remained  uncon- 
voked  since  1600.  The  spirit  of  the  people  had  sunk.  These 
provinces  were  also  externally  unprotected.  The  Khenish 
princes  had  been  gained  by  Louis  XIV.,  who  also  won  over 
Holland  by  fraudulently  proposing  the  partition  of  the  Span- 
ish Netherlands,  to  which  John  de  Witt  as  fraudulently  as- 
sented for  the  sake  of  gaining  time,  conquests  by  land  not 
being  in  his  plan,  and  a  weak  neighbor  (Spain)  being  pre- 
ferred by  him  to  a  powerful  one  (France).  He  has  been 
groundlessly  charged  with  having  been  actually  in  alliance 
with  France,  whom  he  in  reality  merely  deceived,  and 
against  whom  he  raised  a  powerful  league,  the  triple  alli- 
ance between  Holland,  England,  and  Sweden,  which  in- 
stantly opposed  the  attempted  extension  of  the  French  ter- 
ritory on  the  seizure  of  the  Netherlands  by  Turenne  under 
pretext  of  the  non-payment  of  the  dowry  of  the  Infanta 
Maria  Theresa,  and  Louis  was  compelled  to  accede  to  the 
treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,   in  1668,  and  to  content  himself 


AGE   OF   LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1157 

with  the  possession  of  twelve  towns,  Tournay,  Kyssel,  Cour- 
tray,  Oudenarde,  etc.  Germany  looked  on  with  indifference. 
Louis  XIV.,  enraged  at  the  duplicity  practiced  by  John 
de  Witt,  now  intrigued  against  ilolland,  and,  in  order  to 
guard  against  a  second  surprise,  entered  into  negotiation 
with  the  neighboring  powers,  with  the  view  of  completely 
isolating  the  Dutch  republic.  A  fresh  alliance  was  con- 
cluded with  Switzerland,  in  1663;  the  governments  were 
flattered  and  bribed  and  a  number  of  mercenaries  drawn 
from  them,  while  the  betrayed  people  were  treated  with  in- 
solent contempt  and  their  petitions  for  the  removal  of  the 
restrictions  upon  commerce  on  the  frontier  left  unnoticed. 
Lorraine  was  speedily  mastered.  Francis,  the  duke's 
brother,  had,  in  1662,  defended  the  country  against  Louis, 
and  the  duke,  Charles,  who  had,  in  1667,  with  great  unwill- 
ingness allowed  his  troops  to  coalesce  with  those  of  France, 
refused  to  come  to  a  further  understanding.  The  country 
was  instantly  occupied  with  French  troops,  the  duke  ex- 
pelled, in  1670,  Nancy  pillaged  and  the  booty  carried  to 
Paris.  This  scandalous  robbery,  committed  in  peace  time 
on  a  German  province,  remained  unpunished.  The  empire 
offered  no  interference.  The  imperial  towns  in  Alsace, 
Strasburg  excepted,  had  been  compelled,  in  1665,  in  a 
similar  manner,  to  swear  allegiance  to  France.  Vain  was 
the  address  of  a  patriot  (Gallus  ablegatus)  to  the  diet, 
"Awake,  ye  princes  of  Germany,  arise!  France  has  seized 
Lorraine,  the  Rhine  lies  open.  Awake!  shake  off  your 
slumbers,  seize  your  arms!  Beware  of  the  Egonists!  March 
forward!  Choose  whether  you  would  be  eagles  under  the 
eagle  or  chickens  under  the  cock!"  The  Egonists  (a  play 
upon  the  word  egotist  and  the  three  brothers  von  Fursten- 
berg,  Francis  Egon,  bishop  of  Strasburg,  Ferdinand  Egon, 
master  of  the  household  at  Munich,  and  William  Egon)  had 
universal  rule,  more  particularly  William,  who  blindly  led 
the  elector,  Maximilian  Henry  of  Bavaria,  and  was  Louis's 
principal  agent  in  Germany,  by  which  he  gained  the  so- 
briquet  of  "le   cher   ami   de  France."     Cologne   and   the 


1158  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

bishop  of  Munster,  Bernard  von  Galen,  furnished  the  French 
monarch  with  troops,  in  which  they  were  imitated  by  John 
Frederick  of  Hanover,  who  took  a  French  general  into  his 
service  for  the  purpose  of  teaching  his  subjects  the  French 
exercise  and  lived  in  his  impoverished  country  with  the 
senseless  pomp  of  a  petty  Louis.  Christian  of  Mecklen- 
burg-Schwerin  was  infected  with  a  similar  mania,  made  a 
public  profession  of  Catholicism  at  Paris,  in  1663,  took  the 
name  of  Louis  and  always  subscribed  himself  "knight  of 
the  order  of  the  most  Christian  king. ' '  Others  among  the 
German  princes  remained  neutral.  Ferdinand  Maria,  elec- 
tor of  Bavaria,  whom  Louis  had  surrounded  with  licentious 
French  courtiers,  and  who  was  completely  led  by  a  brother 
of  William  von  Furstenberg  and  by  the  Jesuit  Privigniani, 
the  creature  of  France;  Eberhard  of  Wurtemberg,  who  sided 
with  France  through  dread  of  losing  Mumpelgard,  and  who, 
on  that  account,  gave  his  son  the  name  of  Louis  and  begged 
the  French  king  to  stand  godfather;  Mayence,  where  a 
whisper  from  France  sufficed  to  overthrow  the  minister, 
Boineburg,  who,  for  a  moment,  appeared  to  favor  Germany; 
Treves,  exposed  to  every  attack,  and  the  rest  of  the  petty 
Rhenish  princes.  A  Count  Solms,  the  only  one  who  refused 
to  yield,  was  beaten  to  death  by  order  of  Turenne.  Bitter 
complaints  and  satires  abounded,  but  Louis  XIV.  had  Ger- 
man authors,  among  others  the  celebrated  Conring,  in  his 
pay,  who  lauded  France  to  the  skies,  defended  his  claim 
upon  the  conquered  territory,  and  loaded  German  patriotism 
with  ridicule.  Finally,  aided  by  the  princes  of  Lubkowitz 
(who,  like  Lichtenstein,  Colloredo,  Gallas,  and  Piccolomini, 
had  risen  to  note  during  the  thirty  years'  war,  and  who  held 
the  principality  of  Sagan  in  fee),  whom  he  had  bribed,  he 
deluded  the  emperor  into  an  alliance,  in  1761,  for  the  pre- 
tended extermination  of  the  heretics.  This  secret  treaty  was 
shown  by  France  to  the  elector  of  Brandenburg,  partly  with 
a  view  of  striking  him  with  terror,  partly  with  that  of  dissi- 
pating his  inclination  to  ally  himself  with  Austria.  Ger- 
many was,   by  these  means,  secured,  and,  on  the  confirma- 


AGE   OF  LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1159 

tion  of  the  alliance  between  Louis  and  Charles  II.,  king  of 
Eugland,  the  fate  of  Holland  appeared  inevitable.  Louis, 
in  order  to  color  his  designs,  pretended  to  act  in  the  name 
of  his  brother  sovereigns  and  to  avenge  the  monarchical 
principle  on  the  insolent  republic.  A  medal  was  struck, 
representing  Louis  in  a  haughty  attitude,  and,  on  the  reverse, 
HoJand  humbled,  with  the  inscription,  "Ultor  Regum." 

Leibnitz,  the  great  philosopher,  formed  at  that  time  the 
whimsical  plan  of  diverting  the  French  from  the  conquest 
of  Holland  by  that  of  Egypt,  and  of  preserving  the  tran- 
quillity of  Germany  by  means  of  a  quarrel  between  France 
and  Turkey.  John  Philip,  the  intriguing  elector  of  May- 
ence,  undertook  the  management  of  this  affair,  which  was 
treated  with  ridicule  by  Louis,  who  laughingly  observed 
that  "crusades  were  no  longer  in  vogue." 

The  French  king  entered  Holland  at  the  head  of  two 
hundred  thousand  men,  while  the  bishop  of  Munster  made  a 
simultaneous  attack  on  the  opposite  side  with  a  force  twenty 
thousand  strong,  which  found  the  states-general  unprepared. 
The  fortresses  were  in  a  state  of  dilapidation,  and  the  army 
scarcely  mustered  twenty  thousand  men.  The  French,  con- 
sequently, made  rapid  progress,  took  Wesel  and  Rheinsberg 
(which,  although  appertaining  to  Brandenburg,  had  been 
^ong  garrisoned,  as  security  against  the  Spanish,  by  the 
Dutch),  cut  Holland  off  from  any  aid  that  might  offer  from 
Germany,  and,  ere  long,  occupied  Oberyssel,  Guelders,  and 
Utrecht.  The  only  opposition  offered  by  the  Dutch  was  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Yssel,  where  the  great  Conde*  was  wounded. 
The  mercenaries  were  spiritless,  their  commanders  often 
traitors,  the  people  ignorant  of  the  use  of  arms  and  taken  by 
surprise.  In  Wesel,  the  women  refused  to  allow  their  hus- 
bands to  expose  themselves  to  the  enemy's  fire  and  insisted 
upon  capitulation.  The  citizens  of  Nimwegen,  Bommel,  De- 
venter,  and  Elburg,  on  the  other  hand,  displayed  the  great- 
est courage,  but  were  unable,  owing  to  the  cowardice  of  their 
officers,  who  deserted,  to  maintain  themselves  against  the 
besieging  army.     Several  undecisive  engagements  also  took 


1160  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

place    between    the    fleets    of    England    and    Holland,  in 
1672. 

The  Dutch,  who  had  for  so  long  deemed  themselves  se- 
cure from  every  hostile  attack,  were  panic-struck,  and  the 
cry  of  "  Holland  is  in  distress"  passed  from  mouth  to  mouth. 
Their  courage,  however,  speedily  returned,  and,  on  the  pro- 
posal of  a  negotiation  with  France  being  made  to  the  states- 
general  by  John  de  Witt,  some  of  the  city  deputies,  among 
others  the  burgomaster  of  Amsterdam,  John  von  der  Poll, 
Valckenier,  Hop,  and  Hasselaar,  made  an  ineffectual  oppo- 
sition; the  assembled  provincial  Estates  of  Zealand,  notwith- 
standing, passed  the  noble-spirited  resolutions: — First,  We 
ought  to  and  will  defend  our  religion  and  our  liberty  to  the 
utmost  of  our  ability  and  with  the  last  drop  of  our  blood. 
Secondly,  We  will  on  no  account  consent  to  any  contract  or 
negotiation,  which  may  have  been  or  may  be  entered  into 
by  Holland  or  by  any  of  the  other  provinces  with  France. 
Thirdly,  We  will,  without  delay,  send  a  deputation  to  our 
sovereign,  the  Prince  of  Orange,  entreating  him  to  aid  and 
defend  us  with  his  allies.  Fourthly,  In  so  far  as  we  may  be 
unable  to  withstand  the  overwhelming  forces  of  the  enemy 
we  prefer  submitting  to  the  king  of  England  than  to  the 
king  of  France. — This  example  electrified  the  people,  and 
defence  was  unanimously  resolved  upon.  John  de  Witt  lost 
all  his  influence  and  was  loudly  blamed  for  having  neglected 
the  defences  of  the  country,  and  for  having,  shortly  before 
the  breaking  out  of  the  war,  allowed  the  exportation  of  salt- 
petre to  France.  His  exclusion  of  the  house  of  Orange  from 
the  stadtholdership  in  1667,  and  his  subsequent  abolition  of 
that  dignity  by  the  "Eternal  Edict,"  had  excited  the  enmity 
of  William  of  Orange,  who  now  imitated  the  revenge  taken 
by  his  ancestor,  Maurice,  on  Olden  Barneveldt.  De  Witt 
was  falsely  accused  of  having  acted  upon  a  secret  under- 
standing with  France.  An  attempt  was  made  to  assassinate 
him,  and  one  de  Graaf  dealt  him  a  wound  which  confined 
him  to  his  sick  chamber.  The  people  rose  simultaneously 
throughout  the  country;  de  Witt's  party  fell,  and  every  eye 


AGE   OF  LOUIS    TEE   FOURTEENTH  1161 

was  turned  upon  William  of  Orange,  then  in  his  twenty-sec- 
ond year,  who  actively  superintended  the  affairs  of  Holland 
and  was  seen  in  every  quarter,  encouraging  the  people  and 
restoring  tranquillity.  "Orange  boven!"  Up  with  Orange! 
was  the  geDeral  cry;  orange-colored  ribbons  fluttered  on 
every  hat,  and  from  every  tower  waved  flags  of  similar  hue, 
bearing  the  inscription, 

"Orange  boven  en  Wit  onder, 
Die  't  anders  meent,  sla  de  Donder." 

The  dams  were  again  pierced,  and  a  great  portion  of  the 
country  was  flooded.  The  besieged  cities  still  held  out. 
Marshal  d'Ancre  was  compelled  to  raise  the  siege  of  Aar- 
denburg,  where  the  women  and  children  vied  with  the  men 
in  defending  the  walls,  and  Groningen  covered  herself  with 
glory  by  repelling  the  twenty  thousand  Episcopal  troops  from 
Cologne  and  Munster.  The  bishop  was  equally  unsuccessful 
before  Coeverden,  where  fourteen  hundred  of  his  men  were 
carried  away  by  a  flood,  occasioned  by  the  bursting  of  a  dam 
which  he  had  intended  to  open  upon  the  town.  The  citizens 
of  Blocksijl  shot  their  cowardly  commandant  and  main- 
tained their  town,  unaided  by  the  military.  Louis  returned 
in  disappointment  to  France,  leaving  Turenne  to  watch  the 
country. 

The  unfortunate  John  de  Witt,  when  scarcely  recovered 
from  his  wounds,  had  been,  meanwhile,  put  to  the  rack  at 
The  Hague,  and,  at  length,  cut  to  pieces,  together  with  his 
invalid  brother,  Cornelius,  by  the  infuriated  multitude,  who 
afterward  publicly  hawked  their  limbs  about  the  town. 
Tichelaar,  the  instigator  of  this  hideous  deed,  was  rewarded 
by  William  of  Orange  with  an  office  and  a  pension. 

CCXXIV.    The   Great  Elector 

The  influence  of  Frederick  William,  the  great  elector  of 
Brandenburg,  who,  apprehensive  for  his  territory  of  Cleves, 
at  length  induced  the  emperor  to  give  up  his  alliance  with 

Germany.     Vol.  III.— 11 


1162  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

France,  had  also  essentially  contributed  to  the  evacuation  of 
Holland  by  the  French.  The  representations  made  by  France 
and  the  pope  to  the  emperor  against  his  unconscientious  union 
with  heretics,  Brandenburg  and  Holland  (as  if  France  had 
never  sought  the  alliance  of  both  Sweden  and  Turkey),  were, 
nevertheless,  far  from  ineffectual,  and  Montecuculi,  although 
sent  to  the  aid  of  Holland,  was  regulated  in  his  movements 
by  the  orders  and  counter-orders  of  Lobkowitz,  the  tool  of 
France.  When  on  the  point  of  forming  a  junction  with  the 
great  elector  and  of  driving  the  French  out  of  Holland,  he 
suddenly  received  orders  to  march  to  Frankfort  and  there  to 
remain  in  a  state  of  inactivity,  upon  which  Turenne  instantly 
threw  himself  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine,  for  the  purpose 
of  cutting  off  his  communication  with  the  Netherlands  and 
with  Cleves.  Montecuculi,  however,  also  crossing  the  Rhine 
at  Mayence  and  threatening  to  invade  France,  Turenne  re- 
crossed  the  Rhine  with  such  precipitation  at  Andernach  that 
a  thousand  of  his  plundering  soldiery  were  left  behind  and 
were  killed  in  the  Westerwald  by  the  peasantry. 

The  seat  of  war  was,  by  this  means,  removed  from  Hol- 
land to  the  Middle  Rhine,  where  the  Rhenish  league,  in  the 
interest  of  France,  threw  every  difficulty  in  the  path  of 
the  patriotic  elector.  All  the  princes  of  the  empire,  through 
whose  territory  the  Brandenburg  troops  passed,  protested 
against  the  violation  and  demanded  reparation.  Saxony, 
supported  by  the  elector  of  Mayence,  leagued  with  Hanover 
and  Sweden  against  Brandenburg,  and  the  behavior  of  the 
imperial  court  was,  at  the  same  time,  so  equivocal,  that 
the  elector,  apprehensive  of  losing  Cleves,  was  compelled 
to  conclude  peace  at  Vossem,  without  delay,  with  France 
in  1673. 

Louis,  once  more  confident  of  success,  now  sent  the  Mar- 
shal de  Luxemburg  to  the  frontiers  of  Holland,  where  he 
gave  his  soldiers  license  to  plunder,  burn,  and  murder.  The 
most  frightful  atrocities  were  committed.  In  the  spring  of 
1673,  the  French  king  took  the  field  in  person  with  a  design 
of  completing  the  conquest  of  Holland.     De  Ruyter,  how- 


AGE   OF   LOUIS    THE    FOURTEENTH  1163 

ever,  beating  the  English  fleets  in  three  successive  engage- 
ments, Charles  II.  was  compelled  by  the  English  parliament 
to  renounce  his  base  alliance  with  France;  Austria  also  at 
length  exerted  herself;    Lubkowitz  was  dismissed;  Monte- 
cucuii  advanced  to  the  Khine,  and,  at  Cologne,  seized  the 
traitor,  William  von  Furstenberg,  who  had  impudently  as- 
sumed the  title  of  French  ambassador  without  previously 
renouncing  his  allegiance  to  the  empire.     Treves  fell  into 
the  hands  of  the  French.     An  indecisive  engagement  took 
place  between  William  of  Orange  and  the  French  at  Senef, 
and,  in  1664,  Turenne  was  sent  to  the  Upper  Rhine,  where 
the  imperialists  under  Bournonville,  a  Frenchman,  who  was 
either  ill-adapted  for  the  command  or  in  the  pay  of  France, 
were  defeated  at  Ensisheim,  before  the  elector  of  Branden- 
burg, who  had  again  ranged  himself  on  the  emperor's  side, 
could  join  them  with  his  troops.     Charles  Louis,  elector  of 
the  Pfalz,  who,  from  his  castle  of  Friedricksburg,  beheld 
the  smoking  cities  and  villages  wantonly  set  in  flames  by 
Turenne,  sent  that  commander  a  challenge,  which  was  re- 
fused, Turenne  returning  his  customary  excuse  for  his  con- 
duct,  "These  things  always  happen  in  war  time."      The 
veteran  duke,  Charles  of  Lorraine,  unaided,  attacked  and 
defeated  the  French  under  Crecqui,  near  Treves,  in  1675. 
The  duke  of  Vaudemont,  governor  of  Burgundy,  also  long 
and  gallantly  stood  his  ground  in  Besancon,  but  no  succor 
being  afforded  to  him  that  province  was  again  lost.    Charles 
of  Lorraine  vainly  implored  the  imperialists  and  Branden- 
burg to  coalesce  for  the  defence  of  the  frontier  provinces; 
Bournonville  refused  to  move  until  he  was  at  length  attacked 
at  Muhlhausen  and  thrown  back  upon  the  great  elector,  by 
whom  the  French  were  defeated  at  Turkheim.    The  Swedes, 
meanwhile,  instigated  by  Louis,  suddenly  invaded  Branden- 
burg, and  the  elector  hastily  returned  to  defend  his  demesnes. 
Charles  of  Lorraine  died  of  rage  and  sorrow. 

Montecuculi,  notwithstanding  the  absence  of  the  elector 
of  Brandenburg,  was  again  victorious  on  the  Upper  Rhine. 
Turenne  fell  in  the  battle  of  Sasbach  (1675).     The  French 


1164  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

were  driven  back  on  every  side,  and,  being  a  second  time 
defeated  on  the  Saar,  retreated  beyond  Treves.  They  de- 
fended themselves  in  this  city,  under  Crecqui,  for  some  time, 
but  were  at  length  compelled  to  capitulate.  The  greater 
number  of  them  were  cut  to  pieces  on  the  entrance  of  the 
imperialists,  who  mistook  the  explosion  of  some  grenades  for 
an  attack.  A  brilliant  victory  was  gained  at  the  same  time, 
1676,  at  the  foot  of  Etna,  by  the  Dutch  fleet  over  that  of 
France;  De  Ruyter,  who  was  killed  in  this  engagement, 
was  buried  at  Syracuse. 

The  French  king  now  withdrew  his  forces  for  a  while, 
leaving  the  fortresses,  remaining  in  his  hands,  strongly  for- 
tified. These  garrisons  systematically  plundered  and  de- 
stroyed the  country  in  their  vicinity;  Berg-Zabern,  where 
numbers  of  the  inhabitants  were  burned  to  death,  Brucksal, 
and  numerous  villages  were  laid  in  ashes.  The  capture  of 
Philippsburg,  one  of  the  principal  fortresses,  by  the  imperial- 
ists, merely  incited  the  French  to  greater  violence,  and  the 
year  1677  opened  amid  all  the  horrors  of  war.  Conflagra- 
tions spread  far  and  wide.  St.  Wendel,  Saarbruck,  where 
the  incendiaries  were  besieged  in  the  castle,  taken  and  slain, 
Hagenau,  Zweibrucken,  Elsass-Zabern,  Buschweiler,  Ott- 
weiler,  Lutzelstein,  Veldenz,  Weissenburg,  and  four  hundred 
villages  were  reduced  to  heaps  of  ruins.  The  Dachsburg, 
the  strongest  fort  in  the  Pfalz,  fell  by  treachery.  The  valu- 
able library  of  the  Pfalzgraf  of  Zweibrucken  was  carried  to 
Paris.  La  Broche,  the  captain  of  the  incendiary  bands,  was 
taken  by  the  imperialists  and  shot.  He  was  succeeded  by 
Montclas,  who,  after  some  bloody  skirmishes  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Strasburg,  crossed  the  Rhine,  set  thirty  villages 
around  Breisach  in  flames,  and  took  Freiburg  in  the  Breisgau 
by  surprise,  where  he  maintained  his  position,  the  emperor, 
deluded  by  his  counsellors,  the  tools  of  France,  no  longer 
making  any  effort  for  the  preservation  of  the  empire.  The 
Swiss,  instead  of  aiding  their  German  brethren,  restricted 
themselves  to  the  defence  of  their  frontiers,  whence  they  re- 
pulsed the  duke  of  Lorraine,  who  sought  refuge  within  their 


AGE   OF   LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1165 

territory.  Germany  offered  but  trifling  resistance,  and  the 
war  became  a  succession  of  petty  skirmishes. — The  Nether- 
lands were  also  greatly  harassed  by  the  French  garrison  of 
Maestricht.  Tangern  and  a  number  of  villages  were  burned 
down  by  the  Marshal  de  Luxemburg,  who  pillaged  the  coun- 
try so  systematically  that  not  a  single  head  of  cattle  remained 
in  the  territory  within  his  reach. 

The  elector  of  Brandenburg  had,  in  the  meantime,  hur- 
ried home  to  defend  his  territory  from  the  Swedes,  who,  in- 
stigated by  Vitry,  the  French  ambassador,  were  there  renew- 
ing all  the  horrors  of  the  thirty  years'  war.  The  elector's 
army,  numerically  weak  and  worn  with  fatigue,  was  opposed 
by  one  superior  in  number  and  accustomed  to  victory,  under 
Waldemar,  the  brother  of  the  celebrated  Gustavus  Wrangel. 
The  emperor,  deluded  into  a  belief  that  the  invasion  of  Bran- 
denburg by  the  Swedes  merely  masked  an  intention  on  both 
parts  to  coalesce  for  the  purpose  of  invading  Silesia,  refused 
his  aid.  The  warlike  bishop  of  Munster,  formerly  Branden- 
burg's foe,  now  became  his  sole  ally,  and,  arming  in  his  de- 
fence, held  Hanover,  which  showed  an  inclination  to  assist 
the  Swedes,  in  check.  The  active  mind  of  the  elector  and 
the  fidelity  of  his  people,  however,  proved  his  best  defence. 
The  peasants,  cruelly  abused  by  the  Swedes,  rose  through- 
out the  country  in  his  name,  and  the  elector,  secretly  aided 
by  the  citizens  of  Rathenow,  succeeded  in  surprising  and 
killing  almost  every  Swede  within  the  walls.  The  few  that 
escaped  fell  back  upon  a  strong  detachment  stationed  at 
Fehrbellin,  which  being,  without  the  elector's  permission, 
attacked  by  the  youthful  Landgrave,  Frederick  of  Hesse- 
Homburg,  the  former  was  compelled  to  hasten  to  his  aid 
with  his  cavalry,  the  infantry  being  unable  to  come  up  in 
time.  He  gained  a  complete  victory,  partly  owing  to  the 
experience  and  fidelity  of  Marshal  Derflinger,  who  was  orig- 
inally a  tailor's  apprentice.  Derflinger  had  also  conducted 
the  surprise  of  Rathenow.  Several  of  the  old  Swedish  regi- 
ments, habituated  to  victory,  refused  either  to  save  them- 
selves by  flight  or  to  yield,  and  were  cut  down  almost  to  a 


1166  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

man.  The  gallant  Landgrave  was  pardoned  for  the  rash- 
ness of  his  attack.  Brandenburg's  equerry,  Froben,  observ- 
ing, during  the  engagement,  that  the  Swedes  aimed  at  the 
gray  horse  ridden  by  the  duke,  begged  of  him  to  change 
horses  with  him,  and  was,  a  few  seconds  after,  shot  by  the 
enemy  (1675).  The  elector  and  Derflinger  were,  in  the  ensu- 
ing campaign,  again  successful;  the  Swedes  were  defeated 
at  Wolgast;  Stettin  was  taken  after  a  determined  resist- 
ance; Stralsund,  which  had  so  long  resisted  Wallenstein,  and 
Greifswald,  fell  into  their  hands.  In  the  winter  of  1678,  the 
Swedes  invaded  Prussia,  but  were  repulsed  by  the  elector, 
who  pursued  them  in  sledges  across  the  gulf  of  Courland  and 
again  defeated  them  in  the  vicinity  of  Riga,  whence  famine 
and  the  severity  of  the  cold  compelled  him  to  return.  The 
Dutch,  under  the  younger  Tromp,  also  beat  the  Swedes  at 
sea,  and  Wismar  was  taken  by  Brandenburg  and  by  his 
Danish  allies.  This  war,  the  result  of  foreign  influence  in 
Germany,  again  emptied  the  vial  of  wrath  on  the  heads  of 
the  people.  How  came  Stettin  and  Wismar  to  fight  for  a 
foreign  ruler? 

The  fall  of  Ghent  and  Ypern,  and  the  defeat  of  William 
of  Orange  at  St.  Omer,  inclined  the  Dutch  to  peace.  This 
ingratitude  filled  their  former  allies  with  disgust.  The  im- 
becile emperor,  in  the  meantime,  taught  to  regard  Branden- 
burg, who  had  covered  himself  with  glory  by  his  successes 
in  the  North,  as  more  dangerous  to  his  repose  than  France, 
and  supported  by  the  futile  perfidy  of  the  Dutch,  concluded, 
without  regard  for  the  critical  state  of  the  empire,  a  hasty 
and  shameful  treaty  at  Nimwegen  in  1678,  by  which 
Brandenburg  was  expressly  excluded  from  all  participation 
in  the  advantages  of  the  peace.1  A  useless  but  splendid 
victory  was  gained  by  William  at  Mons,  before  the  news  of 
the  conclusion  of  peace  reached  the  Dutch  camp.     Freiburg 

1  A  medal  of  Louis  XIV.,  struck  on  this  occasion,  represents  Peace,  accom- 
panied by  Pain  and  Pleasure,  descending  from  heaven,  and  Holland  welcoming 
her  with  open  arms  while  the  imperial  eagle  vainly  attempts  to  hold  her  back 
by  her  robes. 


AGE   OF   LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1167 

in  the  Breisgau  was,  by  this  treaty,  ceded  by  the  emperor, 
Burgundy  and  the  twelve  frontier  towns  in  the  Netherlands 
by  Spain,  to  France,  who,  on  her  part,  restored  Lorraine, 
which  she,  notwithstanding,  provisionally  occupied  with  her 
troops.  The  traitor,  William  von  Furstenberg,  instead  of 
being  beheaded  like  the  Hungarian  rebels  who  suffered  at 
that  time,  was  loaded  with  every  mark  of  honor,  restored 
to  liberty,  and  afterward  rewarded  with  the  bishopric  of 
Strasburg  and  a  cardinal's  hat. 

Brandenburg  was  condemned  to  restore  his  conquests  to 
Sweden,  and  a  French,  army,  under  Crecqui,  advanced,  in 
1679,  against  the  Danes,  Brandenburg's  allies,  laid  Cologne, 
Juliers,  and  Oldenburg  under  heavy  contribution,  without 
the  empire  being  able  to  protect  herself  from  the  insult,  and 
withdrew,  after  compelling  the  elector,  deserted  by  the  em- 
peror and  the  empire,  to  accede  to  the  terms  of  the  peace 
and  to  restore  his  Pomeranian  conquests  to  Sweden.  Had 
he  and  the  gallant  Montecuculi  been  at  the  head  of  affairs  in 
Germany,  how  different  might  have  been  her  fate ! 

The  elector  now  turned  his  attention  to  Prussia,  where, 
as  a  Calvinist,  he  found  the  Lutherans,  and,  as  an  absolute 
sovereign,  the  ancient  noblesse,  citizens,  and  provincial  Es- 
tates ranged  in  opposition  to  him.  His  first  step  was  the 
erection  of  the  fortress  of  Friedrichsburg,  whose  cannons 
commanded  the  city  of  Kcenigsberg.  Ehode,  the  president 
of  the  bench  of  aldermen  in  that  city,  too  zealously  defend- 
ing her  ancient  privileges,  was  arrested  and  condemned  to 
death,  a  sentence  that  was  afterward  commuted  to  imprison- 
ment for  life.  An  opportunity  was  offered  to  him  to  ask  for 
pardon,  of  which  he  haughtily  refused  to  take  advantage. 
The  Freiherr  von  Kalkstein  violently  opposing  the  elector's 
measures  at  the  head  of  the  provincial  Estates,  was  also 
arrested,  but  being  allowed  a  certain  degree  of  liberty  on 
parole,  escaped  to  Warsaw,  where  he  was  privately  seized 
by  the  elector's  agents  and  carried  to  Memel,  where  he  was 
executed  in  1672.  The  elector  was  also  sometimes  forced 
by  necessity  to  have  recourse  to  arbitrary  measures  in  Bran- 


1168  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

denburg,  such  as  striking  a  false  currency,  levying  duties 
and  heavy  taxes  for  the  payment  of  his  troops,  on  whom  he 
depended  for  the  preservation  of  his  position  in  the  empire. 
He  was  also  compelled  to  suppress  several  ancient  and  dis- 
tinct local  privileges  for  the  sake  of  increasing  the  unity  and 
strength  of  his  dominions.  The  excessive  intolerance  of  the 
Lutheran  clergy  received  a  severe  check;  the  elector,  en- 
raged at  their  obstinacy,  compelling  them  to  bind  themselves 
by  oath  to  obey  every  electoral  edict  without  reservation. 
The  church  was,  by  this  means,  rendered  subservient  to 
every  caprice  on  the  part  of  the  sovereign.  The  Lutheran 
pastor  at  Berlin,  Paul  Gerhard  the  poet,  was  the  only  one 
among  the  Lutheran  clergy  who  preferred  banishment  to 
servility. 

The  intrigues  carried  on  simultaneously  by  the  great 
elector  with  Sweden,  Poland,  France,  and  Austria,  and  his 
despotic  rule  over  his  subjects,  are  partly  excused  by  his  po- 
sition and  by  the  perfidy  of  his  opponents.  Frederick  Wil- 
liam used  his  utmost  endeavors  not  only  to  raise  the  power 
of  his  house,  but  also  to  free  Germany  from  foreign  influ- 
ence. In  his  old  age,  actuated  by  his  dislike  of  the  Habs- 
burg,  and  guided  by  his  second  wife,  Dorothea,  a  princess  of 
Holstein,  who  sought  to  substitute  her  children  for  the  heir- 
apparent,  he  declared  in  favor  of  France.  The  emperor,  be- 
sides betraying  him  by  the  treaty  of  Nimwegen  and  robbing 
him  of  the  fruits  of  his  contest  with  Sweden,  had,  on  the 
decease  of  William,  the  last  duke  of  Leignitz,  Brieg,  and 
Wohlau,  deprived  him  of  his  rightful  inheritance  and  com- 
pelled him  to  rest  content  with  the  possession  of  the  district 
of  Schwiebus,  in  1675.  Frederick,  the  heir-apparent,  un- 
able to  support  the  tyranny  of  his  stepmother,  abandoned 
the  country,  and  his  doting  father  was  induced  to  bequeath 
the  whole  of  his  possessions,  Courland  alone  excepted,  to  the 
sons  of  Dorothea.  His  will  was,  on  his  decease,  annulled 
by  the  court  of  Vienna,  which  had  taken  the  prince  under 
its  protection  on  condition  of  his  binding  himself  to  restore 
Schwiebus  on  his  father's  death. 


AGE   OF   LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1169 

The  attempt  made  by  the  great  elector  to  found  a  naval 
power  is  worthy  of  remark.  The  subsidies,  promised  to  him 
by  Spain  on  Louis's  first  invasion,  remaining  unpaid,  he  sent 
out  a  small  fleet  under  Cornelius  van  Bevern,  in  1679,  who 
waylaid  and  seized  the  rich  Spanish  galleons,  and,  in  1687, 
he  formed  an  African  society,  which  sent  out  a  fleet  under 
von  der  Groeben  and  founded  Gross- Friedrichsburg  on  the 
coast  of  Guinea.  The  existence  of  this  colony  being  endan- 
gered by  the  jealousy  of  the  English  and  Dutch,  it  was  sold 
to  the  latter  in  1780. 

CCXXV.    Ill- treatment  of  the  Imperial  Cities — The 
Loss  of  Strasburg 

Louis  XIV.,  while  carrying  on  his  attacks  externally 
against  the  empire,  exerted  every  effort  for  the  destruction 
of  the  remaining  internal  liberties  of  Germany.  His  inva- 
sion of  Holland  had  been  undertaken  under  the  plausible 
pretext  (intended  as  a  blind  to  the  princes)  of  defending  the 
monarchical  principle,  and,  while  secretly  planning  the  seiz- 
ure of  Strasburg,  he  sought  to  indispose  the  princes  toward 
the  free  imperial  cities.  He,  accordingly,  flattered  Bavaria 
with  the  conquest  of  Nuremberg,  Batisbon,  Augsburg,  and 
Ulm;  Bavaria  was,  however,  still  apprehensive  of  the  em- 
peror and  contented  herself  with  retaining  possession  of  the 
old  imperial  city  of  Donauwcerth,  notwithstanding  the  peace 
of  Westphalia,  by  which  the  freedom  of  that  city  had  been 
guaranteed.  In  1661,  French  troops  aided  the  bishop,  van 
Galen,  in  subjugating  the  provincial  town  of  Munster  and  in 
depriving  her  of  all  her  ancient  privileges.  In  1664,  French 
troops,  in  a  similar  manner,  aided  the  electoral  prince  of 
Mayence  to  place  the  city  of  Erfurt  under  subjection.  Erfurt 
belonged  originally  to  Mayence,  but  had  long  been  free  and 
Protestant,  and  stood  under  the  especial  protection  of  Sax- 
ony. The  demand  made  by  the  elector,  of  being  included  in 
the  prayers  of  the  church,  being  refused  by  the  Protestant 
citizens,  the  emperor,  who  beheld  the  affair  in  a  Catholic 


1170  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

light,  put  the  city  out  of  the  ban  of  the  empire,  which  was 
executed  by  Mayence,  backed  by  a  French  army,  while  Sax- 
ony was  pacified  with  a  sum  of  money.  The  unfortunate 
citizens  opposed  the  Mayence  faction  within  the  city  with 
extreme  fury,  assassinated  Kniephof,  the  president  of  the 
council,  and  beheaded  Limprecht,  one  of  the  chief  magis- 
trates, but  were,  after  a  gallant  defence,  compelled  to 
capitulate. 

In  1665,  Louis  reduced  the  imperial  cities  of  Alsace, 
Strasburg  excepted,  to  submission.  In  1666,  the  Swedes, 
under  Wrangel,  made  a  predatory  attack  upon  Bremen  and 
bombarded  the  town,  but  withdrew  on  a  protest  being  made 
by  the  emperor  and  the  empire.  In  the  same  year,  Frederick 
William  of  Brandenburg  annihilated  the  liberties  of  the  city 
of  Magdeburg,  the  archbishopric  having,  on  the  death  of 
Augustus  of  Saxony,  fallen,  in  consequence  of  the  peace  of 
Westphalia,  under  the  administration  of  Brandenburg.  In 
1671,  the  ancient  city  of  Brunswick  had  been  seized  by  Ku- 
dolph  Augustus,  duke  of  Wolfenbuttel,  and  robbed  of  all 
her  privileges.  Most  of  the  merchants  emigrated.  In  1672, 
Cologne  was  subjugated  by  the  elector,  the  city  having,  at 
an  earlier  period,  favored  the  Dutch.  The  citizens,  tyran- 
nized over  by  the  council  dependent  on  the  elector,  revolted, 
but  were  reduced  to  submission  in  1689.  The  rebellious 
citizens  of  Liege  were  also  reduced,  by  the  aid  of  the  elector 
of  Cologne,  and  deprived  of  their  ancient  privileges,  in 
1684.  A  similar  insurrection  caused,  at  Brussels,  in  1685, 
by  the  heavy  imposts,  was  suppressed  by  force. 

In  East  Fnesland,  Count  Eudolph  Christian,  who  had 
been  murdered  during  the  thirty  years'  war,  had  been  suc- 
ceeded by  his  brother,  Ulric,  whose  son,  Enno  Louis,  had,  in 
1654,  been  created  prince.  George  Christian,  Enno's  brother 
and  successor,  was  involved  in  a  dispute,  on  account  of  the 
heavy  imposts,  with  the  city  of  Emden,  and  in  a  vexatious 
suit  with  his  niece,  the  wife  of  one  of  the  princes  Lichten- 
stein,  who  claimed  Harlingerland  in  right  of  her  mother. 
This  suit  was  terminated  by  the  invasion  of  Friesland  by  an 


AGE   OF   LOUIS    TEE   FOURTEENTH  1171 

imperial  army  under  Bernard  van  Galen,  bishop  of  Munster, 
who  imposed  a  heavy  fine,  by  way  of  compensation,  on  the 
count.  On  the  death  of  George  Christian,  in  1665,  his 
widow,  a  princess  of  Wurtemberg,  carried  on  the  govern- 
ment in  the  name  of  her  infant  son,  Christian  Eberhard, 
whose  guardian,  Ernest  Augustus,  duke  of  Brunswick,  ren- 
dered himself  highly  unpopular,  and,  on  his  departure,  the 
bishop  of  Munster,  to  whom  the  princess  had  promised,  by 
way  of  compensation,  a  share  in  the  city  of  Emden,  reap- 
pearing, the  citizens  took  up  arms  in  their  defence,  but,  sub- 
sequently, made  terms  with  the  bishop  and  were  supported 
by  Brandenburg  against  the  princess,  whose  despotic  rule 
was  formally  opposed  by  the  Estates.  Tranquillity  was  re- 
stored on  the  accession  of  the  young  prince  in  1690. 

Hamburg  had  been  a  scene  of  disturbance  since  1671,  on 
account  of  the  narrow-minded  despotism  of  the  aristocratic 
council,  which,  in  1673,  fraudulently  obtained  a  decision,  the 
Windischgraetz  convention,  from  the  emperor,  who  rebuked 
the  complaining  citizens  and  recommended  them  to  submit. 
The  syndic,  Garmer,  who  had  been  principally  implicated  in 
the  affair  of  the  convention,  intriguing  with  Denmark,  be- 
came suspected  by  the  emperor  and  was  compelled  to  fly 
from  Hamburg  in  1678.  The  burgomaster,  Meurer,  was 
also  expelled.  The  convention  was  repealed,  and  Meurer 
was  replaced  by  Schluter,  who  was  assisted  by  two  honest 
citizens,  Schnitger  and  Jastram.  The  Danes,  on  the  failure 
of  Garmer's  intrigues,  sought  to  seize  Hamburg  by  surprise 
and  to  annex  that  city — under  pretence  of  its  having  formerly 
appertained  to  Holstein — to  Denmark.  The  citizens  were, 
however,  on  the  watch;  Brandenburg  hastened  to  their  aid, 
and  the  Danes  were  repulsed.  The  ancient  aristocratic  fac- 
tion now  rose  and  falsely  accused  Schnitger,  Jastram  and 
Schluter  of  a  design  to  betray  the  city  to  Denmark;  the 
two  former  were  quartered,  the  third  was  poisoned  in  prison; 
Meurer  was  reinstated  in  his  office,  and  the  Windischgraetz 
convention  reinforced.  The  ancient  pride  of  i  <■  Bansa  had 
forever  fallen.     In  1667,  the  Dutch  pursued  the  English  mer- 


1172  THE    HISTORY    OF    GERMANY 

chantmen  up  to  the  walls  of  Hamburg,  captured  them,  and 
injured  the  city,  which,  in  order  to  escape  war  with  England, 
compensated  the  English  merchants  for  their  losses. 

Strasburg,  the  ancient  bulwark  of  Germany,  was,  how- 
ever, destined  to  a  still  more  wretched  fate,  and,  deserted  by 
the  German  princes,  was  greedily  grasped  by  Erance.  The 
insolence  of  the  French  monarch  had  greatly  increased  since 
the  treaty  of  Nimwegen.  In  1680,  he  unexpectedly  declared 
his  intention  to  hold,  besides  the  territory  torn  from  the  em- 
pire, all  the  lands,  cities,  estates,  and  privileges  that  had 
thereto  appertained,  such  as,  for  instance,  all  German  mon- 
asteries, which,  a  thousand  years  before  the  present  period, 
had  been  founded  by  the  Merovingians  and  Carlovingians, 
all  the  districts  which  had,  at  any  time,  been  held  in  fee  by, 
or  been  annexed  by  right  of  inheritance  to,  Alsace,  Bur- 
gundy, or  the  Breisgau,  and,  for  this  purpose,  established 
four  chambers  of  reunion  at  Besangon,  Breisach,  Metz,  and 
Tournay,  composed  of  paid  literati  and  lawyers,  commis- 
sioned to  search  for  the  said  dependencies  amid  the  dust 
of  the  ancient  archives.  The  first  idea  of  these  chambers  of 
reunion  had  been  given  by  a  certain  Ravaulx  to  Colbert,  the 
French  minister,  and  the  execution  of  their  decrees  was  com- 
mitted to  bands  of  incendiaries,  who,  in  Alsace,  the  Nether- 
lands, and  the  Pfalz,  tore  down  the  ancient  escutcheons  and 
replaced  them  with  that  of  France,  garrisoned  the  towns, 
and  exacted  enormous  contributions  from  the  citizens,  with 
which  Louis  purchased  three  hundred  pieces  of  artillery  for 
the  defence  of  the  territory  thus  arbitrarily  seized. 

The  whole  of  the  empire  was  agitated,  but,  while  a  tedi- 
ous discussion  was  as  usual  being  carried  on  at  Ratisbon, 
the  French  carried  their  schemes  into  execution  and  sud- 
denly seized  Strasburg  by  treachery.  This  city,  according 
to  her  historian,  Friese,  had  made  every  effort  to  maintain 
her  liberty  against  France.  The  citizens  had,  since  the  thirty 
years'  war,  lived  in  a  state  of  continual  apprehension,  main- 
tained and  strengthened  their  fortifications,  kept  a  body  of 
regular   troops,    and,    in   their  turn,    every   third   day  had 


AGE   OF   LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1173 

mounted  guard.  For  sixty  years,  they  had  been  contin- 
ually on  the  defensive,  and  immense  sums  had  been  swal- 
lowed up  in  the  necessary  outlay.  Trade  and  commerce 
declined.  The  bishop  of  Spires  levied  a  high  duty  on  the 
goods  of  the  Strasburg  merchants  when  on  their  way  through 
Lauterburg  and  Philippsburg  to  the  Frankfort  fairs,  while 
France  beheld  the  sinking  credit  of  the  city  with  delight, 
exercised  every  system  of  oppression  in  her  power,  and  pro- 
moted disunion  among  the  citizens.  There  were  also  traitors 
among  the  Lutheran  clergy.  The  loyalty  of  the  citizens  was, 
however,  proof  against  every  attempt,  and  Louis  expended 
three  hundred  thousand  dollars  in  the  creation  of  a  small 
party.  Terror  and  surprise  did  the  rest.  The  city  was 
secretly  surrounded  with  French  troops  at  a  time  when 
numbers  of  the  citizens  were  absent  at  the  Frankfort  and 
other  fairs,  September,  1680,  and  the  traitors  had  taken  care 
that  the  means  of  defence  should  be  in  a  bad  condition.  The 
citizens,  deluded  by  promises  or  shaken  by  threats,  yielded, 
and  Strasburg,  the  principal  key  to  Germany,  the  seat  of 
German  learning  and  the  centre  of  German  industry,  capitu- 
lated, on  the  13th  of  October,  to  the  empire's  most  implacable 
foe.  Louis  made  a  triumphal  entry  into  the  city  he  had  won 
by  perfidy,  and  was  welcomed  by  Francis  Egon  von  Fursten- 
berg,  the  traitorous  bishop,  in  the  words  of  Simeon,  "Lord, 
now  lettest  thou  thy  servant  depart  in  peace,  for  mine  eyes 
have  seen  thy  salvation!"  The  city  was  strongly  garrisoned 
by  the  French,  and  the  fortifications  were  rapidly  improved 
to  such  a  degree  as  to  render  it  one  of  the  strongest  places 
in  Europe.  The  great  cathedral,  belonging  to  the  Protes- 
tants, was  reclaimed  by  the  bishop,  and  the  free  exercise  of 
religion  was,  contrary  to  the  terms  of  capitulation,  restricted. 
All  the  Lutheran  officials  were  removed,  the  clergy  driven 
into  the  country.  The  Protestants  emigrated  in  crowds. 
The  chief  magistrate,  the  venerable  Dominicus  Dietrich,  fell 
a  victim  to  private  enmity  and  was  cited  to  appear  before 
Louis  at  Paris,  where  he  was  long  detained  prisoner.  Lou- 
vois,  on  his  steady  refusal  to  recant,  sent  him  into  the  in- 


1174  THE    HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

terior  of  France,  where  he  was  long  imprisoned.  He  was, 
toward  the  close  of  his  life,  allowed  to  return  to  Strasburg, 
where  he  expired  in  1694.  His  memory  has  been  basely 
calumnied  by  many  German  historians.  Numbers  of  French 
were  sent  to  colonize  Strasburg,  Alsace,  and  Lorraine.  Many 
of  the  towns  and  districts  received  fresh  names;  the  German 
costume  was  prohibited,  and  the  adoption  of  French  modes 
enforced. 

The  elector  of  Brandenburg,  influenced  by  his  wife,  en- 
tering into  alliance  with  France,  and  the  Turks,  at  Louis's 
instigation,  invading  Austria,  that  monarch  found  himself 
without  an  opponent,  and,  after  conquering  Luxemburg,  de- 
stroyed Genoa,  which  still  remained  faithful  to  the  empire, 
by  bombarding  her  from  the  sea,  in  1684.  The  emperor, 
harassed  by  the  Turks  and  abandoned  by  the  princes,  was 
again  compelled,  in  1685,  to  sign  a  disgraceful  peace,  by 
which  France  retained  her  newly -acquired  territory,  besides 
Strasburg  and  Luxemburg.  Among  all  the  losses  suffered 
by  the  empire,  that  of  Strasburg  has  been  the  most  deeply 
felt.  The  possession  of  that  powerful  fortress  by  France 
has,  for  almost  two  centuries,  neutralized  the  whole  of  Up- 
per Germany  or  forced  her  princes  into  an  alliance  with  their 
natural  and  hereditary  foe. 

CCXXVI.    Vienna  besieged  by  the  Turks 

Louis,  while  thus  actively  employed  in  the  West,  inces- 
santly incited  the  sultan,  by  means  of  his  ambassadors  at 
Constantinople,  to  fall  upon  the  rear  of  the  empire.'  In 
Hungary,  the  popular  disaffection,  excited  by  the  despotic 
rule  of  the  emperor,  had  risen  to  such  a  height  that  the 
Hungarian  Christians  demanded  aid  from  the  Turk  against 
their  German  oppressors.     A  conspiracy  among  the  nobility 

1  Samebat  Reunionura  pestis  ad  Occasum,  dum  alia  ad  Ortum  ingrueret. 
Ut  enim  socius  socio  (idem  praestaret,  Gallus  et  Turca,  Christianissiraus  et 
Antichri8tiani8simu8,  novus  Pylades  atquo  Orestes,  par  nobile  amicorum  in  vetita 
juratorum,  junctis  consilus  ancipiti  raalo  Germaniam  premebant,  alter  Gallica 
fide,  Grteca  alter. — Fecialis  Gallu$,  1689. 


AGE    OF   LOUIS    THE    FOURTEENTH  1175 

was  discovered  in  1671,  and  the  chiefs,  Frangipani  (the  last 
of  this  house  raised  by  treason),  Nadasdi,  Xriny,  and  Tat- 
tenbach,  suffered  death  as  traitors  at  Neustadt.  Xriny  was 
the  grandson  of  the  hero  of  Sigeth.  His  wife  died  mad.  No 
mercy  was  extended  to  the  heretics  by  the  triumphant  Jesuits 
and  by  the  soldiers  of  fortune  educated  in  their  school.  The 
magnates  were  induced  by  fear  or  by  bribery  to  recant. 
The  people  and  their  preachers,  however,  resisted  every 
effort  made  for  their  conversion,  and  a  coup  d'etat  was  the 
result.  In  1674,  the  whole  of  the  Lutheran  clergy  was  con- 
voked to  Presburg,  was  falsely  accused  of  conspiracy,  and 
two  hundred  and  fifty  of  their  number  were  thrown  into 
prison.  These  clergymen  were  afterward  sold,  at  the  rate 
of  fifty  crowns  per  head,  to  Naples,  were  sent  on  board  the 
galleys  and  chained  to  the  oar.  Part  of  them  were  set  at 
liberty  at  Naples,  the  rest  at  Palermo,  by  the  gallant  Ad- 
miral de  Euyter  shortly  before  his  death.  The  defenceless 
communes  in  Hungary  were  now  consigned  to  the  Jesuits. 
The  German  soldiery  were  quartered  on  them,  and  the  ex- 
cesses committed  by  them  were  countenanced,  as  a  means 
of  breaking  the  spirit  of  the  people.  The  banner  of  revolt 
was  at  length  raised  by  the  Lutheran  Count  To'koly,  but  the 
unfortunate  Hungarians  looked  around  in  vain  for  an  ally 
to  aid  them  in  struggling  for  their  rights.  The  only  one  at 
hand  was  the  Turk,  who  offered  chains  in  exchange  for 
chains.  The  emperor,  alarmed  at  the  impending  danger, 
yielded,  and  in  1681  granted  freedom  of  conscience  to 
Hungary,    but  it  was  already  too  late. 

Louis  XIV.  redoubled  his  efforts  at  the  Turkish  court, 
and  at  length  succeeded  in  persuading  the  sultan  to  send 
two  hundred  and  eighty  thousand  men  under  the  grand 
vizier,  Kara  Mustapha,  into  Hungary,  while  he  invaded  the 
western  frontier  of  the  empire  in  person.  Terror  marched 
in  the  Turkish  van.  The  retreat  of  the  weak  imperial  army 
under  the  duke,  Charles  of  Lorraine,  under  whom  the  Mar- 
grave, Louis  of  Baden,  who  afterward  acquired  such  fame, 
served,  became  a  disorderly  flight.     The  Turks  reached  the 


1176  THE    HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

gates  of  Vienna  unopposed.  The  emperor  fled,  leaving  the 
city  under  the  command  of  Rudiger,  Count  von  Stahren- 
berg,  who,  for  two  months,  steadily  resisted  the  furious  at- 
tacks of  the  besiegers,  by  whom  the  country  in  the  vicinity 
was  converted  into  a  desert  and  eighty-seven  thousand  of 
the  inhabitants  were  dragged  into  slavery.  Stahrenberg, 
although  severely  wounded,  was  daily  carried  round  the 
works,  gave  orders,  and  cheered  his  men.  The  Turkish 
miners  blew  up  the  strongest  part  of  the  walls,  and  the 
whole  city  was  surrounded  with  ruins  and  heaps  of  rub- 
bish; still  the  Viennese,  unshaken  by  the  wild  cries,  the  fu- 
rious attacks,  and  immense  numbers  of  the  enemy,  gallantly 
resisted  every  attempt.  The  wounded  were  tended  by  the 
Bishop  Kolonitsch,  who  so  zealously  fulfilled  his  duty  as  to 
draw  a  threat  from  the  grand  vizier  that  he  would  deprive 
him  of  his  head.1  The  numbers  of  the  garrison,  meanwhile, 
rapidly  diminished,  and  the  strength  of  the  citizens  was  worn 
out  by  incessant  duty.  Stahrenberg  was  compelled  to  punish 
the  sleepy  sentinels  with  death.  Famine  now  began  to  add 
to  the  other  miseries  endured  by  the  wretched  Viennese, 
who,  reduced  to  the  last  extremity,  fired,  during  a  dark 
night,  a  radius  of  rockets  from  the  tower  of  St.  Stephen's, 
as  a  signal  of  distress  to  the  auxiliary  forces  supposed  to  be 
advancing  behind  the  Leopold  and  Kahlenberg.  The  aid 
so  long  awaited  was,  fortunately,  close  at  hand.  The  vicin- 
ity and  greatness  of  the  danger  had  caused  an  imperial  army 
to  be  assembled  in  an  unusually  short  space  of  time;  the  em- 
peror had  twenty  thousand  men  under  Charles,  duke  of  Lor- 
raine; the  electors  of  Bavaria  and  Saxony  came  in  person  at 
the  head  of  twelve  thousand  men  each.  Swabia  and  Fran- 
conia  sent  nine  thousand  into  the  field.  John  Sobieski,  the 
chivalresque  king  of  Poland,  brought  an  auxiliary  troop  of 
eighteen  thousand  picked  men  from  the  North.  The  Ger- 
man princes  ceded  to   him  the  command  of   their  united 

1  Kara  Mustapha  was  subsequently  strangled  on  account  of  his  defeat,  and 
his  head,  found  on  the  taking  of  Belgrade,  was  sent  to  the  bishop,  who  sullied 
his  fame  by  his  cruelty  toward  the  Hungarian  Protestants. 


AGE   OF  LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1177 

forces,  and,  on  Saturday,  the  11th  of  September,  1683,  he 
climbed  the  Kahlenberg,  whence  he  fired  three  cannon  as 
a  signal  to  the  Viennese  of  their  approaching  deliverance, 
and  on  the  following  morning  fell  upon  the  camp  of  the 
Turks,  who  had  thoughtlessly  omitted  taking  the  precau- 
tionary measure  of  occupying  the  heights,  and  who,  confi- 
dent in  their  numerical  strength,  continued  to  carry  on  the 
siege  while  they  sent  too  weak  a  force  against  the  advanc- 
ing enemy.  The  Germans,  consequently,  succeeded  in  push- 
ing on;  the  imperial  troops  on  the  left  wing,  the  Saxons  and 
Bavarians  in  the  centre,  leaving  the  right  wing,  composed 
of  Poles,  behind.  The  Germans  halted  and  were  joined  at 
Dornbach  by  the  Poles.  A  troop  of  twenty  thousand  Turk- 
ish cavalry,  the  indecision  of  whose  movements  betrayed 
their  want  of  a  leader,  was  routed  by  Sobieski's  sudden  at- 
tack, and  the  Germans,  inspirited  by  this  success,  fell  upon 
the  Turkish  camp.  Thirty  thousand  Christian  prisoners  were 
instantly  murdered  by  command  of  tbe  enraged  vizier,  who, 
instead  of  turning  his  whole  force  against  the  new  assailants, 
poured  a  shower  of  bombs  and  balls  upon  Vienna.  The 
Turks,  already  discontented  at  the  contradictory  orders,  re- 
fused to  obey  and  were  easily  routed.  The  grand  vizier's 
tent  and  an  immense  treasure  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
Poles;  the  whole  of  the  Turkish  artillery  into  those  of  the 
Germans.  The  secret  correspondence  between  Louis  XIV. 
and  the  Porte  was  discovered  among  the  grand  vizier's  pa- 
pers. Forty-eight  thousand  Turks  fell  during  the  siege; 
twenty  thousand  in  the  battle. 

On  the  following  day,  the  Polish  king  entered  Vienna  on 
horseback  and  was  greeted  by  crowds  of  people,  who  thronged 
around  him  to  kiss  his  stirrup.  The  emperor,  who  had  taken 
into  deep  consideration  the  mode  in  which  a  meeting  with 
Sobieski  could  be  arranged  without  wounding  his  own  dig- 
nity, had  at  length  resolved  to  come  to  his  rencounter  mounted 
on  horseback,  and,  after  bestowing  an  amicable  greeting  upon 
his  deliverer,  remained  stiffly  seated  in  his  saddle,  nor  even 
raised  his  hat,  on  his  hand  being  kissed  by  Sobieski's  son  or 


1178  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

on  the  presentation  of  Bome  of  the  Polish  nobles.  The  Polish 
army  was  also  ill-provided  for,  and  the  Poles  evinced  an  in- 
clination to  return;  Sobieski,  however,  declared  his  intention 
to  remain,  even  if  abandoned  to  a  man,  until  the  enemy  had 
been  entirely  driven  out  of  the  country,  and  unweariedly 
pursued  the  Turks,  twenty  thousand  of  whom  again  fell 
at  Parkan,  until  they  had  completely  evacuated  the  country, 
when  he  returned  to  Poland. 

Charles  of  Lorraine,  aided  by  Louis  of  Baden,  carried 
on  the  war  during  the  ensuing  year  and  attempted  to  regain 
Hungary.  Still,  notwithstanding  the  fate  of  Kara  Mustapha, 
who  had,  at  the  sultan's  command,  been  strangled  at  Bel- 
grade, and  the  inability  of  his  successors,  who  were  either 
too  deeply  absorbed  in  the  intrigues  of  the  seraglio  or  too 
unskilled  in  war  to  take  the  command  of  a  second  expedi- 
tion, the  Turkish  commandants  and  garrisons  retained  pos- 
session of  the  Hungarian  fortresses  and  offered  a  brave  and 
obstinate  resistance.  Every  attempt  against  Ofen  failed, 
notwithstanding  the  defeat  of  the  relieving  army  at  Hand- 
zabek  by  Duke  Charles.  Ibrahim,  surnamed  Satan,  main- 
tained the  city  during  a  protracted  siege,  which  cost  the 
Germans  twenty-three  thousand  men,  in  1684. — In  the 
ensuing  campaign,  Caprara,  field-marshal  of  the  imperial 
forces,  besieged  the  fortress  of  Neuhausel,  which,  after  be- 
ing desperately  defended  by  Zarub,  a  Bohemian  nobleman 
who  had  embraced  Islamism  and  been  created  a  pacha,  was 
finally  taken  by  storm.  The  whole  of  the  garrison,  the  pacha 
included,  fell.  The  whole  of  Upper  Hungary  fell  into  Ca- 
prara's  hands.  The  unfortunate  Count  Tokoly  was  carried 
off  in  chains  by  the  Turks,  and  his  valiant  wife,  a  daughter 
of  the  decapitated  Xriny  and  the  widow  of  a  Ragoczy,  long 
defended  her  treasures  in  the  rocky  fastness  of  Muncacz. 
Most  of  her  husband's  partisans,  however,  went  over  to  the 
triumphant  imperialists,  and  the  greater  part  of  the  fortified 
towns  capitulated  in  1685. — Ofen,  defended  by  Abdurrha- 
man  Pacha  and  by  a  garrison,  ten  thousand  strong,  who  were 
favored  by  the  inhabitants,  all  of  whom  were  Turks,  was 


AGE   OF   LOUIS    THE    FOURTEENTH  1179 

again  besieged  by  the  elector  of  Bavaria,  while  Charles  of 
Lorraine  marched  against  the  Turkish  army  advancing  to 
its  relief.  The  contest  was  carried  on  with  equal  fury  on 
both  sides.  The  Germans  were  repulsed  with  a  loss  of  three 
to  four  thousand  men.  The  grand  vizier  was,  meanwhile, 
kept  in  check  by  Duke  Charles,  and  Ofen,  after  a  terrific 
struggle,  was  finally  taken  by  storm,  September  2,  1686, 
without  an  effort  being  made  on  the  part  of  the  terror- 
stricken  vizier.  The  Turks  defended  themselves  even  in  the 
courts  and  apartments  of  the  ancient  castle,  where  they  were 
slam  together  with  their  women  and  children.  The  brave 
Abdurrhaman  fell.  Two  thousand  men,  who  had  taken 
refuge  in  one  of  the  castle  squares,  alone  received  quarter. 
The  grand  vizier  fled.  A  fearful  revenge  was  taken  by  the 
emperor  upon  Hungary.  A  tribunal,  known  as  the  slaugh- 
ter-house of  Eperies,  was  held  by  General  Caraffa.  Every 
Hungarian  suspected  of  having  sided  with  Tokoly  was  thrown 
into  prison  and  cruelly  tortured,  and  a  great  number  were 
executed.  Vengeance  fell  upon  all  who  refused  implicit 
obedience  to  Austria;  the  national  right  of  election  was  an- 
nulled, and  the  hereditary  right  of  the  house  of  Habsburg 
proclaimed  throughout  Hungary.  Charles  of  Lorraine  was 
again  victorious  over  the  Turks  at  Mohacz  in  1687.  He 
was  succeeded  in  the  command  by  Louis,  Margrave  of  Baden, 
who,  in  1691,  again  beat  the  Turks  at  Szalankemen,  but  was 
compelled  to  yield  his  post  to  Frederick  Augustus,  elector  of 
Saxony.  The  inability  of  this  prince  induced  the  emperor 
to  bestow  the  command  on  Eugene,  prince  of  Savoy,  whom 
Louis  XIV.  had,  by  personal  ridicule,  rendered  his  most 
implacable  foe.  Eugene,  whose  diminutive  person,  half 
concealed  beneath  an  immense  peruke  and  mounted  on  a 
tall  horse,  bore  a  most  ludicrous  appearance,  was  one  of 
the  greatest  generals  of  his  time  and  was  idolized  by  his 
soldiery,  whom  he  ever  led  to  victory.  In  the  battle  of 
Zenta,  he  entirely  broke  the  power  of  the  Turks;  he  took 
Belgrade,  and,  by  the  peace  of  Carlowitz,  confirmed  Austria 
in  the  possession  of  the  whole  of  Hungary.     Kagoczy,  in 


1180  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

1699,  again  set  up  the  standard  of  rebellion  in  Hungary,  but 
was  reduced  to  submission,  and  the  next  emperor,  Joseph  I., 
sought  to  conciliate  the  people  by  a  greater  show  of  lenity. 

CCXXVIL   French  Depredations 

The  revocation  of  the  edict  of  Nantes  by  Louis  XIV. 
had  driven  eight  hundred  thousand  Reformers  out  of  France. 
Servile  Switzerland  repulsed  them  from  her  inhospitable 
frontiers,  and  they  emigrated  to  Holland,  England,  and, 
more  particularly,  to  Brandenburg,  where  they  were  per- 
mitted by  the  great  elector  to  settle  at  Berlin  in  1685. 
Their  gradual  intermixture  with  the  natives  produced  the 
peculiarly  boastful  and  shrewd  character  for  which  the  peo- 
ple of  Berlin  are  proverbial.  Louis,  at  the  same  time,  con- 
tinued his  encroachments,  seized  Treves,  harassed  Lorraine 
and  Alsace,  and  erected  the  fortress  of  Huningen, '  opposite 
to  Basel.  The  Swiss  murmured,  but,  ever  mercenary,  fur- 
nished him  with  all  the  contingents  he  required,  and,  during 
the  subsequent  war,  their  number  amounted  to  twenty-eight 
thousand  seven  hundred  men.  Valckenier,  the  Dutch  envoy 
to  Switzerland,  at  the  same  time,  succeeded  in  raising  eight 
thousand  five  hundred  men  from  the  Reformed  cantons. 

The  possession  of  the  Pfalz  had  long  been  the  principal 
object  of  Louis's  ambition.  The  Pfalzgraf,  Charles  Louis, 
who  had  been  deprived  of  his  inheritance  by  French  intrigue, 
labored  throughout  the  whole  of  his  life  to  reconcile  the  va- 
rious religious  sects.  At  Friedrichsburg  he  built  a  church, 
named  by  him  the  Temple  of  Concord,  in  which  he  had  the 
service  successively  performed  according  to  the  three  Chris- 
tian forms  of  worship,  the  Catholic,  the  Lutheran,  and  the 
Calvinistic.     He  also  abolished  the  severe  laws  against  the 


1  Over  the  gateway  stood  the  following  inscription,  "Ludovicus  Magnus,  rex 
Christianissimus,  Belgicus,  Sequanicus,  Germanicus,  pace  Europae  concessa, 
Huningam  arcera,  sociis  tutelam,  hostibus  terrorem,  exstruxit."  Louis  carried 
his  contempt  of  the  Baselese  so  far  as  to  have  a  cannon  founded  for  this  fortress, 
with  the  inscription,  "Si  tu  te  remues,  Bale,  Je  te  tue." 


AGE    OF   LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1181 

Anabaptists.  His  toleration  drew  colonists  from  every  part 
of  Germany,  who  again  cultivated  his  wasted  lands  and 
rapidly  restored  Mannheim,  in  particular,  to  a  state  of  pros- 
perity. The  capricious  conduct  of  his  consort,  Charlotte  of 
Hesse-Cassel,  provoked  a  divorce,  and  he  married  Mademoi- 
selle Louise  von  Degenfeld,  by  whom  he  had  thirteen  chil- 
dren, who,  on  account  of  the  inequality  of  their  mother's 
birth,  were  excluded  from  the  succession.  Of  his  two  chil- 
dren by  his  former  wife,  the  prince  died  early,  and  his 
daughter,  Elisabeth  Charlotte,  he  was,  in  1671,  persuaded 
by  Louis  XIV.  to  bestow  upon  Philip  of  Orleans,  as  security 
against  all  further  attacks  on  the  part  of  France.  Louis's 
insolence  was,  however,  thereby  increased,  and,  under  pre- 
text of  Charles  Louis's  having  aided  in  again  depriving  him 
of  Philippsburg,  he  demanded  one  hundred  and  fifty  thou- 
sand florins  by  way  of  reparation  and  sent  troops  to  Neu- 
stadt  in  order  to  enforce  payment.  Germersheim  was  de- 
clared dependent  upon  France,  and  the  unfortunate  elector, 
unsupported  by  the  empire,  died  of  chagrin  in  1685. 

Louis  instantly  claimed  the  inheritance  for  Philip,  Char- 
lotte's husband,  without  regard  to  the  right  of  the  house  of 
Wittelsbach.  The  German  princes,  who  had  unscrupulously 
deserted  the  imperial  free  towns  and  the  nobility  of  the  em- 
pire in  Alsace,  and  the  Dutch  republic  were,  at  length,  roused 
by  this  insolent  attack  on  their  hereditary  rights,  and,  enter- 
ing into  a  close  confederacy,  formed,  in  1686,  the  great 
alliance  of  Augsburg  against  France.  Even  Maximilian  of 
Bavaria,  who,  under  the  guidance  of  Marshal  Villars  and 
of  his  mistresses,  imitated  all  the  vices  of  the  French  court, 
saw  his  family  interests  endangered  by  the  destruction  of 
the  Pfalz,  ranged  himself  on  the  emperor's  side,  and  dis- 
missed Villars,  who,  on  quitting  him,  loaded  him  with 
abuse.  The  pope  also,  terrified  at  the  audacity  of  the 
French  monarch,  once  more  pronounced  in  favor  of  Ger- 
many. Each  side  vied  with  the  other  in  diplomatic  wiles 
and  intrigue.  On  the  demise  of  Maximilian  Henry  of  Co- 
logne, William  von  Furstenberg,  who  had,  by  Louis's  influ- 


1182  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

ence,  been  presented  with  a  cardinal's  hat,  had  been  elected 
archbishop  of  Cologne  by  the  bribed  chapter  and  resided  at 
Bonn  under  the  protection  of  French  troops.  The  citizens 
of  Cologne,  however,  closed  the  gates  against  him  and  were 
aided  by  Brandenburg  troops  from  Cleves  and  by  the  Bava- 
rians. The  election  was  abrogated  by  the  emperor,  the  em- 
pire, and  the  pope,  by  whom  Prince  Joseph  Clement  of  Ba- 
varia was  installed  as  archbishop  of  Cologne  instead  of  the 
cardinal.  The  great  league  was,  in  1688,  considerably 
strengthened  by  the  accession  of  William  of  Orange  to  the 
throne  of  England  in  the  place  of  his  Catholic  father-in-law, 
James  II. ,  who  took  refuge  in  France. 

Louis  XIV.,  foreseeing  the  commencement  of  a  fresh  and 
great  struggle,  hastened  to  anticipate  the  league,  and,  in  the 
autumn  of  1688,  sent  fifty  thousand  men,  under  General 
Montclas,  into  the  Pfalz,  which  was  left  totally  unprotected 
by  the  empire.  The  cities  were  easily  taken;  Treves,  Spires, 
Worms,  Ofi'enburg,  Mayence,  and  the  fortress  of  Philipps- 
burg,  which  offered  but  a  short  resistance,  also  fell.  The 
electorates  of  Treves  and  Mayence  were  overrun  and  plun- 
dered. Coblentz  and  the  castle  of  Heidelberg  alone  with- 
stood the  siege.  Louis,  meanwhile,  unsatisfied  with  occupy- 
ing and  plundering  these  countries,  followed  the  advice  of 
his  minister,  Louvois,  and,  as  far  as  was  in  his  power,  laid 
waste  the  Pfalz  and  the  rest  of  the  Rhenish  and  Swabian 
frontier  provinces,  partly  to  avenge  his  non-acquisition  of 
these  fertile  territories,  partly  with  a  view  of  hindering  their 
occupation  by  a  German  army.  Montclas  and  Melac,  the 
latter  of  whom  boasted  that  he  would  fight  for  his  king 
against  all  the  powers  of  heaven  and  of  hell,  zealously  exe- 
cuted their  master's  commands.  Worms,  Spires,  Franken- 
thal,  Alzei,  Oberwesel,  Andernach,  Kochheim,  and  Kreuz- 
nach  were  reduced  to  ashes,  the  inhabitants  murdered  or 
dragged  into  France  and  compelled  to  recant.  In  Spires, 
the  imperial  vaults  were  broken  open,  and  the  remains  of 
the  emperors  desecrated.  Similar  scenes  were  enacted  on  the 
right   bank  of  the  Rhine.     Mannheim,  Oppenheim,  Laden- 


AGE   OF   LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1183 

burg,  Weinheim,  Heppenheim,  Durlach,  Bruchsal,  Rastadt, 
Germsheim,  Baden,  Bretten,  Pforzheim,  were  burned  to  the 
ground.  Heidelberg  greatly  suffered;  the  castle  held  out. 
The  French  advanced  thence  up  the  Neckar,  plundered  Heil- 
bronn,  Esslingen,  Swabian  Hall,  took  the  Asberg  and  plun- 
dered the  arsenal,  but  were  repulsed  from  Goeppingen  and 
Schorndorf,  where  the  women  inspirited  the  men  by  their  ex* 
ample.  Wurzburg,  Bamberg,  Nuremberg,  etc.,  were  threat- 
ened with  destruction  and  heavily  mulcted.  Frankfort  on 
the  Maine,  Rotenburg  on  the  Tauber,  the  latter  of  which  was 
surrounded  by  seventeen  villages  in  flames,  made  a  valiant 
defence.  Feuquieres  was  routed  before  Ulm,  and  numbers 
of  the  fugitive  French  were  slain  by  the  enraged  peasantry. 
Ehingen  was,  in  retaliation,  burned  to  the  ground.  Tubin- 
gen was  taken  and  sacked  by  Montclas,  who  was,  in  his 
turn,  deprived  of  his  booty  before  Freudenstadt  by  the 
peasants  of  the  Black  Forest.  The  authorities  of  Stuttgard, 
struck  with  terror,  opened  the  gates  to  the  French  against 
the  wishes  of  the  people,  who  loudly  demanded  arms.  Melac 
attempted  to  fire  the  city,  but  was  expelled  by  the  infuriated 
peasantry  and  by  the  Swabian  Landwehr,  under  Charles, 
duke  of  Baden,  and  succeeded  with  difficulty  in  carrying  off  his 
booty  and  the  hostages  he  had  taken  as  security  for  the  pay- 
ment of  the  fine  imposed  by  him  upon  the  city.  The  French 
also  penetrated  into  Upper  Swabia  and  burned  Villingen. — 
They  overran  the  Lower  Rhine,  laid  the  territories  of  Liege, 
Juliers,  etc.,  waste,  and  burned  Siegburg,  where  they  prac- 
ticed every  atrocity. — A  list  of  twelve  hundred  cities  and 
villages,  that  still  remained  to  be  burned,  was  exhibited  by 
these  brigand  bands.  In  the  spring,  the  Bohemian  cities, 
Trautenau,  Braunau,  Klattau,  were  completely  destroyed, 
and,  on  the  21st  of  June,  four  hundred  houses  were  burned 
in  Prague.  Five  of  the  incendiaries  were  taken,  and,  before 
their  execution,  confessed  that  the  authors  of  the  conflagra- 
tion, one  hundred  and  fifty  in  number,  were  accompanied  by 
a  Bohemian  captain  and  by  a  merchant,  the  secret  emissaries 
of  France.     With  such  tools  did  Louis  work.     He  attempted 


1184  THE    HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

the  life  of  William  of  Orange,  the  newly-elected  monarch  of 
England,  in  1689. 

The  phlegmatic  emperor  was  at  length  roused  and  hur- 
ried the  long-delayed  levy  of  imperial  troops.  The  great 
elector  was  dead,  and  his  son,  Frederick,  unable  to  cause  his 
will,  by  which  his  possessions  were  divided  among  his  other 
children,  to  be  invalidated  without  the  concurrence  of  the 
emperor,  openly  declared  against  France  and  ceded  the  dis- 
trict of  Schwiebus  to  the  emperor.  The  petty  princes, 
alarmed  for  their  ancient  privileges,  now  threatened  to  be 
trodden  under  foot  by  the  despotic  French  monarch,  also  fol- 
lowed the  general  impulse  for  defence,  and  hence  originated 
the  decree  of  the  Ratisbon  diet,  which,  with  unusual  energy, 
expelled,  in  1689,  every  French  agent  from  Germany  and 
prohibited  the  reception  of  French  servants  and  intercourse 
of  any  description  with  France,  the  emperor  adding  these 
words,  "because  France  is  to  be  regarded  not  only  as  the 
empire's  most  inveterate  foe,  but  as  that  of  the  whole  of 
Christendom,  nay,  as  even  worse  than  the  Turk."  Leopold, 
for  the  sake  of  promoting  the  unity  of  Germany,  even  laid 
aside  his  ancient  religious  prejudices  and  bestowed  the  eighth 
electoral  dignity  upon  Ernest  Augustus,  duke  of  Brunswick- 
Hanover,  which  placed  the  Protestant  electors,  Saxony, 
Brandenburg,  Hanover,  on  an  equal  footing  with  their  Cath- 
olic brethren:  Bohemia,  Bavaria,  and  the  Pfalz,  the  new 
elector  of  the  Pfalz,  Philip,  belonging  to  the  Catholic  branch 
of  Neuburg.  Wolfenbuttel,  actuated  by  fraternal  jealousy, 
protested  against  the  elevation  of  Hanover  to  the  electoral 
dignity. — The  emperor  also  turned  to  Switzerland  and  re- 
vived the  memory  of  her  former  connection  with  the  empire; 
how  easily  might  she  not  have  prevented  the  devastation 
of  the  Rhenish  province  by  falling  upon  the  enemy's  flank! 
But  she  no  longer  sympathized  with  her  German  kindred, 
and  even  threatened  the  emperor  in  case  he  refused  to  draw 
his  troops  off  her  frontiers  to  the  Upper  Rhine,  while  she 
continued  to  furnish  the  French  king  with  his  most  valu- 
able soldiery.     Dr.  Fatio,  who,   in  1691,  raised  a  rebellion 


AGE    OF   LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1185 

against  the  bribed  and  tyrannical  government  of  Basel, 
was  arrested,  cruelly  tortured,  and  executed  with  two  of 
his  companions. 

The  war  commenced;  but  the  dulness  and  disunion  of  the 
great  league  threw  every  advantage  on  the  side  of  Louis. 
William  of  Orange,  occupied  in  confirming  his  possession  of 
the  English  crown,  neglected  Holland  with  a  view  of  flatter- 
ing his  new  subjects.  The  states-general  remained  devoted  to 
him  both  under  their  president,  Fagel,  who  died  in  1688, 
and  his  successor,  Heinsius;  these  men  were,  however,  no 
military  leaders,  nor  was  the  princely  Count  von  Waldeck, 
the  Dutch  commander-in-chief;  and  the  emperor,  intent  upon 
following  up  his  success  in  Hungary,  had  sent  thither  his 
best  generals  and  troops.  Caprara,  whom  he  despatched 
into  Holland,  fell  into  a  dispute  with  Schcening,  the  Bran- 
denburg marshal,  and  they  were,  consequently,  merely  in 
each  other's  way.  The  elector  of  Bavaria,  insincere  in  his 
professions,  held  back,  and  even  when  elected  stadtholder  of 
the  Spanish  Netherlands  discovered  equal  indifference.  The 
elector  of  Saxony  regained  Mayence,  but  died  in  camp,  and 
Mayence  fell  under  the  command  of  General  Thungen,  the 
greatest  patriot  of  the  day,  who,  in  order  to  strike  terror  into 
the  French  emissaries,  condemned  the  first  French  incendia- 
ries, who  fell  into  his  hands,  to  be  burned  alive.  Schcening, 
in  conjunction  with  Saxony,  drove  the  French  out  of  Heil- 
bronn;  and  Frederick,  elector  of  Brandenburg,  aided  by  the 
Dutch,  took  Bonn  in  1689;  that  had  been  ceded  by  the 
archbishop  of  Cologne  to  France.  Waldeck  was,  neverthe- 
less, defeated  in  1690,  at  Fleurus,  by  a  French  force,  his 
superior  in  number,  under  the  Marshal  de  Luxemburg;  and 
Cornelius  Evertsen,  the  son  of  the  Evertsen  who  fell  in  1666, 
was  also  beaten  off  Bevesier  by  a  superior  French  fleet  under 
Tourville,  who  was,  in  his  turn,  defeated,  in  1691,  by 
the  English  under  Allmonde;  notwithstanding  which,  the 
French  took  Namur  and  bombarded  Liege.  In  1692,  the 
Dutch  gained  a  brilliant  victory  at  La  Hogue,  but  William, 
who  had  returned  from  England,  was  defeated  by  the  Mar- 

Germany.     Vol.  [II.— 12 


1186  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

shal  de  Luxemburg  at  Steenkerken,  and  the  French  under 
Catinat  were,  at  the  same  time,  victorious  in  Savoy  and 
again  penetrated  into  and  devastated  Swabia,  turning  their 
chief  rage  upon  Heidelberg  and  the  splendid  castle,  com- 
manding that  city,  the  residence  of  the  Pfalzgraf,  whose 
mighty  towers  were  blown  up  and  converted  into  the  ruin 
now  the  delight  of  the  traveller.  The  incendiary  bands  then 
mounted  the  Neckar.  The  duke,  Charles  Frederick,  the  ad- 
ministrator of  Wurtemberg,  was  taken  captive;  his  ransom 
was  fixed  at  half  a  million  hvres.  The  mother  of  the  infant 
duke,  Eberhard,  was  threatened  in  Stuttgard,  which  mainly 
owed  its  preservation  to  the  courage  of  the  peasantry;  the 
whole  of  the  country  was  plundered;  the  magnificent  mon- 
astery of  Hirschau,  the  cities  of  Calw,  Marbach,  Nuenburg, 
Vaihingen,  etc.,  were  laid  in  ashes,  and  numbers  of  hostages, 
taken  as  security  for  the  payment  of  the  enormous  sums 
levied  upon  the  inhabitants,  were  starved  to  death  on  ac- 
count of  the  delay  in  the  payment  of  the  money.  These 
predatory  incursions  were  renewed  in  the  ensuing  year,  and 
Wmnenden,  Baknang,  etc.,  were  burned.  Rheinfels,  nobly 
defended  by  the  Hessians,  was  long  and  fruitlessly  besieged 
Numbers  of  the  French  fell.  Louis,  Margrave  of  Baden 
was  now  sent  by  the  emperor  from  Hungary  to  the  Rhine 
and  that  general  instantly  invaded  Alsace,  but,  on  attempt 
ing  to  penetrate  into  the  heart  of  France  in  1693,  the  im 
perial  troops,  more  particularly  the  Saxons,  refused  to  fol 
low,  and  he  was  compelled  to  return.  William  of  Orange 
also  suffered  a  second  defeat  in  the  Netherlands,  near  Neer- 
winden.  Villeroi  followed  in  the  steps  of  Luxemburg,  who 
had  bombarded  and  almost  entirely  destroyed  Brussels.  The 
allies  regained  Namur  in  1694,  but,  nevertheless,  gradually 
displayed  less  energy. 

v  The  French,  on  the  other  hand,  made  considerable  prog- 
ress in  Spain,  where,  notwithstanding  the  gallant  defence 
made  by  George,  Landgrave  of  Hesse- Darmstadt,  they  took 
Barcelona.  Savoy  was  also  compelled  to  sue  for  peace. 
Mayence  was  again  attacked,  and  a  popular  insurrection, 


AGE    OF    LOUIS    THE    FOURTEENTH  1187 

caused  by  the  heavy  war  taxes,  took  place  simultaneously 
at  Amsterdam  in  1696.  A  disgraceful  peace  was,  conse- 
quently, concluded  at  Ryswick  in  1697,  by  which  Louis 
XIV.,  besides  Lorraine,  the  Pfalz,  Breisach,  Freiburg,  and 
Phihppsburg,  retained  all  his  conquests,  among  others  Stras- 
burg.  It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  the  French  language 
was,  at  this  period,  made  use  of  in  transacting  all  diplomatic 
affairs,  the  French  ambassadors  no  longer  tolerating  the  use 
of  Latin. 

Philip  of  the  Pfalz  instantly  enforced  the  maxim,  "Cujus 
regio,  ejus  rehgio,"  throughout  his  new  possessions  and  em- 
ulated Louis  XIV.  in  tyranny  toward  the  Protestants,  who 
emigrated  in  great  numbers;  and  Louis,  notwithstanding 
the  peace,  marched  troops  into  the  Wurtemberg  county  of 
Mumpelgard,  where  he  established  the  Catholic  form  of 
service  in  1699.  The  Jesuits,  at  the  same  time,  recom- 
menced the  persecution  of  the  heretics  in  the  imperial  prov- 
inces, and  numbers  of  Silesians  abandoned  their  native  soil. 

The  complete  neglect  of  the  imperial  fortresses  on  the 
Upper  Rhine  was,  after  such  cruel  experience,  perfectly  in 
accordance  with  the  spirit  of  the  age. 

CCXXVI1I.    German  Princes  on   Foreign   Thrones 

While  Germany  was  thus  a  prey  to  external  foes,  a 
number  of  the  reigning  families  in  Europe  became  extinct, 
and,  by  a  strange  whim  of  fate,  bequeathed  their  thrones  to 
German  princes.  This  circumstance,  however,  far  from 
proving  beneficial  to  the  German  empire,  greatly  contributed 
to  estrange  her  native  princes  and  to  render  their  hereditary 
provinces  dependent  upon  their  new  possessions. 

The  house  of  Oldenburg  had  long  reigned  in  Denmark 
and  directed  its  policy  against  the  empire.  Schleswig  and 
Holstein  were,  as  provinces  subordinate  to  Denmark,  gov- 
erned by  a  prince  of  this  house  in  the  Danish  interest  simi- 
larly with  Oldenburg,  when,  in  1666,  the  elder  branch  be- 
came extinct. 


1188  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

In  Sweden,  the  Pfalzic  dynasty,  raised  in  1654  to  the 
throne,  also  pursued  an  anti-German  system,  that  of  Oxen- 
stierua,  for  the  aggrandizement  of  the  North. 

The  house  of  Orange  was  no  sooner  seated,  in  1688,  on 
the  throne  of  England,  than  the  interests  of  Germany  were 
sacrificed  to  those  of  Great  Brtain. 

Frederick  Augustus,  brother  to  John  George  IV.,  elector 
of  Saxony,  travelled  over  the  half  of  Europe  during  his 
youth.  A  giant  in  size  and  strength,  he  took  delight  in  the 
dangers  and  pleasures  pursued  by  the  French  gallants  of 
that  period.  On  his  arrival  at  Madrid,  he  mingled  with  the 
combatants  in  a  bull-fight,  seized  the  most  savage  of  the  bulls 
by  the  horns  and  dashed  him  to  the  ground.  No  woman 
withstood  his  seductions,  and,  after  escaping  all  the  dangers 
with  which  he  was  threatened  by  the  jealous  Southerns, 
he  returned  to  Saxony,  where,  in  1694,  he  succeeded  his 
brother  on  the  electoral  throne.  Louis  XIV.  was  his  model, 
and,  aided  by  his  favorite,  Flemming,  on  whom  he  had  be- 
stowed the  title  of  Count,  he  began  to  subvert  Saxony.  The 
extravagance  of  his  predecessor  was  economy  when  com- 
pared with  his.  One  mistress  supplanted  another;  all  cost 
incredible  sums.  His  household  was  placed  upon  an  immense 
footing;  palaces,  churches,  retreats  (as,  for  instance,  Moriz- 
burg,  the  Saxon  Versailles,  notorious  for  its  wanton  fetes), 
were  erected;  the  most  costly  chef-d'oeuvres  were  purchased 
with  tons  of  gold;  the  "green  vaults,  "  a  collection  of  useless 
treasures,  was  swelled  with  fresh  valuables  and  curiosities  of 
every  description.  And  for  all  this  his  little  territory  paid. 
Not  a  murmur  escaped  the  people  until  the  elector,  instead  of 
raising  his  numerous  army  as  usual  from  volunteers,  levied 
recruits  by  force,  and  a  revolt  ensued  in  1696.  The  rebel- 
lion was  quelled,  and  the  recruits  were  forced  by  the  inflic- 
tion of  torture  to  swear  fealty  to  the  colors. 

The  ensuing  year  found  the  elector  at  the  summit  of  his 
ambition.  He  was  elected,  by  means  of  bribing  the  Wai- 
wodes  and  gaining  Russia  and  the  emperor  of  Germany 
over  to  his  interests,  king  of  Poland.     Russia  was  at  that 


AGE    OF   LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1189 

period  under  the  rule  of  Peter  the  Great,  who  raised  her 
power  to  a  height  destined  at  a  future  period  to  endanger 
Europe.  Sweden  was  at  that  time  Russia's  most  formidable 
opponent,  and  Peter,  with  a  view  of  paralyzing  the  influ- 
ence of  that  monarchy  over  Poland,  favored  the  elevation  of 
the  elector  of  Saxony.  The  emperor  was  won  over  by  the  re- 
cantation of  the  new  sovereign.  The  reception  of  the  suc- 
cessor of  John  Frederick,  the  sturdy  opponent  to  Catholicism, 
into  the  bosom  of  the  ancient  church  was  indeed  a  triumph. 
Shortly  previous  to  this  event,  Augustus  had  been  involved 
in  some  intrigues  at  Vienna,  where  he  is  said  to  have  watched 
unseen  the  raising  of  an  apparition  intended  to  work  upon 
the  imagination  of  the  archduke,  afterward  the  emperor, 
Joseph  I.,  and  to  have  thrown  the  priest,  who  personated 
the  ghost,  out  of  the  window  into  the  palace  court.  He  also 
gained  over  the  Jesuits  by  favoring  their  establishment  in 
Poland.  The  elevation  of  the  house  of  Saxony,  on  the  other 
hand,  deprived  it  of  its  station  as  the  head  of  the  Protestant 
princes  and  of  all  the  advantages  it  had  thereby  gained  since 
the  Reformation,  and  Brandenburg  became  henceforward 
the  champion  of  Protestantism  and  the  first  Protestant  power 
in  Germany. 

The  frustration  of  the  schemes  of  Louis  XIV.  upon  Po- 
land and  the  ignominious  retreat  of  the  Prince  de  Conti,  the 
French  competitor  for  that  throne,  after  the  expulsion  of  his 
fleet  under  John  Barth  from  the  harbor  of  Dantzig,  were  the 
sole  advantages  gained  on  this  occasion  by  Germany.  Au- 
gustus was,  in  1697,  elected  king  of  Poland.  Still,  not- 
withstanding his  knee  being  kissed  in  token  of  homage  by 
the  whole  of  the  Polish  nobility  and  the  magnificence  of  his 
state  (his  royal  robes  alone  cost  a  mi  llion  dollars),  he  was 
compelled  to  swear  to  some  extremely  humiliating  "pacta 
conventa"  and  to  refrain  from  bringing  his  consort,  who 
steadily  refused  to  embrace  the  Catholic  faith,  into  the  coun- 
try. The  privileges  of  the  Poles  were  secured;  Saxony  was 
taxed  to  meet  the  expenses  incurred  by  her  sovereign,  and 
was  compelled   to  furnish  Poland  with  money  and  troops, 


1190  THE    HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

while  the  Catholic  prince,  Egon  von  Furstenberg,  the  stadt- 
holder  during  the  absence  of  her  sovereign,  drained  the 
coffers  of  the  Protestants,  and,  these  sources  proving  insuf- 
ficient, some  of  the  hereditary  demesnes  were  sold,  among 
others  the  ancestral  castle  of  Wettio.  Augustus  was  finally 
reduced  to  the  necessity  of  issuing  a  debased  coinage.  Al- 
chemists were  also  had  recourse  to.  One  named  Kletten- 
berg,  was  beheaded  for  failing  in  the  discovery  of  gold;  an- 
other, Bcettger,  while  imprisoned  at  Kcenigstein,  invented 
porcelain,  by  the  fabrication  of  which  the  elector  realized 
immense  sums.  —The  loss  of  the  inheritance  of  Saxon-Lauen- 
burg,  whose  last  duke,  Julius  Francis,  expired  in  1689, 
was  severely  felt  by  Saxony.  The  house  of  Anhalt,  a  branch 
of  that  of  Lauenburg,  had  the  first  claim,  but  was  too  weak 
to  compete  for  its  right.  That  of  Saxony  had  been  confirmed 
by  the  emperor,  Maximilian  I.,  but  John  George,  neglecting 
to  take  possession  of  it,  was  superseded  by  George  William 
of  Brunswick-Celle,  who  occupied  the  duchy  with  his  troops, 
and  Augustus,  too  much  occupied  with  Poland  to  assert  his 
claim,  consented  to  receive  an  indemnity  of  one  million  one 
hundred  thousand  florins. 

On  the  death  of  the  great  elector  of  Brandenburg,  in 
1688,  his  will  was  declared  invalid  by  his  son,  Frederick, 
who  maintained  the  indivisibility  of  the  territory  of  Bran- 
denburg against  the  claims  of  the  children  of  his  stepmother, 
Dorothea,  on  whom  he  bitterly  avenged  himself.  Frederick's 
mean  and  misshapen  person,  the  consequence  of  an  accident 
in  his  infancy,  gained  for  him  the  sobriquet  of  the  royal 
^Esop.  His  government  was  at  first  highly  popular.  Dankel- 
mann,  his  prime  minister,  who  had  formerly  saved  his  life, 
was  severe  but  just.  The  elector  had,  however,  a  taste  for 
pomp  and  luxury,  in  which  he  was  encouraged  by  his  favor- 
ite, von  Kolbe,  who  placed  his  wife  in  his  master's  arms. 
This  notorious  person  was  the  daughter  of  a  publican  at 
Emmerick,  and,  notwithstanding  the  title  of  Countess  von 
Wartenberg,  bestowed  upon  her  by  the  elector,  often  caused 
him  extreme  embarrassment  by  the  coarseness  of  her  man- 


AGE   OF  LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1191 

ners.  It  was  by  her  means  that  her  husband  succeeded  in 
his  base  machinations.  Dankelmann  was  suddenly  arrested 
and  thrown  into  a  dungeon  at  Spandau,  and  Kolbe  succeeded 
him  as  minister,  with  unlimited  authority,  under  the  name 
of  Count  von  Wartenberg.  Ignorant  and  mean,  he  solely 
retained  his  office  by  flattering  the  weak  vanity  and  ambi- 
tion of  the  elector.  The  elevation  of  William  of  Orange  to 
the  throne  of  England,  and  of  Augustus  of  Saxony  to  that 
of  Poland,  roused  Frederick's  jealousy,  of  which  Kolbe  took 
advantage  to  inspire  him  with  a  desire  for  the  possession  of 
a  crown,  and  the  transformation  of  the  duchy  of  Prussia, 
then  no  longer  a  Polish  feof,  into  a  kingdom  was  resolved 
upon,  and  its  recognition  was  effected  by  means  of  six  mil- 
lion dollars.  The  Jesuits  in  Vienna  received  two  hundred 
thousand.  They  treated  the  petty  kingdom  with  ridicule, 
but  Prince  Eugene,  who  foresaw  that  the  successors  of  this 
new  monarch  would  increase  in  power  and  arrogance,  said, 
"Those  ministers  by  whom  the  king  of  Prussia  has  been 
recognized  deserve  to  be  hanged."  The  pope  also  strongly 
protested  against  the  weak  concession  made  by  the  emperor. 
A  solemn  coronation  and  the  creation  of  the  order  of  the 
black  eagle  took  place,  in  1701,  at  Koenigsberg.  Frederick 
placed  the  crown  on  his  own  brow,  and  then  on  that  of  his 
consort.  This  princess  favored  the  Pietists  and  had  placed 
the  celebrated  Franke,  the  founder  of  the  Orphan  Asylum 
at  Halle,  near  her  person.  He  was,  however,  dismissed  by 
the  king,  who  declared  salvation  to  be  the  natural  preroga- 
tive of  the  kings  of  the  earth.  Frederick  aped  the  stiff  eti- 
quette of  the  Spanish  court  and  surrounded  his  person  and 
his  palace  with  Swiss  guards,  while  the  ceremonious  attitude 
of  his  court,  like  the  altar  service  in  the  Catholic  churches, 
proclaimed  the  majesty  of  this  terrestrial  deity,  who  merely 
laid  aside  his  dignity  in  his  smoking-room.  The  royal  dig- 
nity cost  enormous  sums.  Kolbe,  who  at  the  same  time  filled 
his  own  purse,  invented  the  most  extraordinary  taxes  in  order 
to  extract  money  from  the  people,  as,  for  instance,  on  wigs, 
dresses,  hogs'  bristles,  etc.     Alchemy  was  also  had  recourse 


1192  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

to.  An  Alchemist,  who  had  assumed  the  title  of  Don  Do- 
minico  Caetano,  Conte  de  Ruggiero,  and  had  grossly  de- 
ceived the  king,  was  hanged  on  a  gilt  gallows  in  a  Roman 
toga  made  of  gold  paper.  The  fading  beauty  and  increasing 
impudence  of  the  Countess  von  Wartenberg  also  led  to 
Kolbe's  downfall,  and  a  dispute  arising  between  him  and 
one  of  his  creatures,  Count  Wittgenstein,  on  account  of  the 
large  sums  taken  by  the  latter  from  the  fire-insurance  office, 
the  whole  of  his  criminal  proceedings  were  discovered,  and 
he  and  his  accomplices  were  punished.  Kolbe  and  his  in- 
famous wife,  however,  escaped  with  honorable  banishment 
and  a  pension  of  twenty-four  thousand  dollars.  A  new  pal- 
ace was  built  at  Berlin,  where  the  citizens,  whose  taste  was 
in  some  degree  influenced  by  the  French  settlers,  vied  with 
the  courtiers  in  luxury  and  splendor. 

CCXXIX.    The  Northern  War— Charles  the  Twelfth 

On  the  accession  of  Charles  XII.,  in  his  seventeenth 
year,  to  the  throne  of  Sweden,  the  neighboring  powers, 
deeming  the  moment  favorable,  attempted  to  humble  the 
power  of  that  kingdom.  The  league  entered  into,  in  1699, 
by  Russia,  Denmark,  and  Saxon-Poland,  was  brought  about 
by  Patkul,  a  patriotic  Livonian,  who  had  been  greatly  ill- 
treated  by  the  Swedes.  The  rights  and  privileges  of  the 
Livonians  had  been  infringed  by  Charles  XL,  and  a  deputa- 
tion from  the  Estates,  in  which  Patkul  was  included,  had, 
notwithstanding  the  safe-conduct  granted  by  the  king,  been 
abused.  Patkul  fled  and  was  sentenced  to  death  in  con- 
tumaciam. Peter,  the  czar  of  Russia,  sent  him  as  his  am- 
bassador to  Saxon-Poland,  and  took  advantage  of  the  quar- 
rel between  Livonia  and  Sweden  to  extend  his  sovereignty 
along  the  Gulf  of  Finland  to  the  detriment  of  Sweden. — The 
hostility  of  the  Danes  had  been  also  roused  by  the  voluntary 
annexation  of  Schleswig-Holstein  to  Sweden.  In  1684,  an 
attempt  made  by  Christian  V.  of  Denmark  to  reannex  Schles- 
wig  with  Denmark  was  frustrated  by  the  intervention  of  the 
neighboring  powers.    Christian  Albert  of  Schleswig-Holstein 


AGE    OF   LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1193 

expired  in  1694.  His  son,  Frederick,  married  Hedwig 
Sophia,  the -sister  of  Charles  XII.,  with  whom  he  formed 
so  strict  a  friendship  as  to  allow  his  territory  to  be  occupied 
by  Swedish  troops. 

On  the  formation  of  the  league  against  Sweden,  the  Danes 
invaded  Holstein,  and  Augustus,  king  of  Poland,  overran 
Swedish  Livonia  and  unsuccessfully  besieged  Riga.  Narwa 
also  withstood  the  Russian  hordes,  which,  partly  armed  with 
arrows  and  clubs  and  in  wild  disorder,  were  driven  to  the 
assault  by  the  terror  of  the  knout.  The  allies  had,  however, 
falsely  judged  the  youthful  scion  of  the  house  of  Wittelsbach. 
Charles  XIL  unsheathed  his  sword  never  again  to  restore  it 
to  the  scabbard.  Suddenly  invading  Denmark,  he  bombarded 
Copenhagen,  compelled  the  king  to  accede  to  his  terms  of 
peace,  and,  in  the  winter  of  1700,  crossed  over  to  Livonia. 
Without  awaiting  the  arrival  of  reinforcements,  he  advanced 
hastily  against  the  czar,  and,  with  merely  nine  thousand  men, 
defeated  forty  thousand  Russians,  or,  as  some  have  it,  one 
hundred  thousand  with  eight  thousand,  at  Narwa.  After 
driving  the  Russians  out  of  the  country,  he  attacked  the 
Saxons  and  Poles  on  the  Duna,  where,  marshalling  his 
troops  in  the  midst  of  the  stream  as  they  were  beaten  from 
the  bank,  he  again  led  them  to  victory.  Augustus  sent  the 
beautiful  Aurora  von  Koenigsmark  to  him  in  the  hope  of  en- 
tangling him  in  an  intrigue,  but  Charles  refused  to  see  her, 
and,  on  meeting  her  accidentally  in  a  hollow  way,  whence 
there  was  no  retreat,  merely  bowed,  and,  without  uttering 
a  syllable,  turned  his  horse's  head  and  rode  away.  He  was, 
during  the  whole  of  his  life,  remarkable  for  his  abhorrence 
of  women  and  wine.  An  army  was  vainly  brought  into  the 
field  by  Riese,  the  licentious  Saxon  general,  whose  effemi- 
nacy rendered  him  an  object  of  contempt  to  the  Poles. 
Charles  was  everywhere  victorious;  in  1702,  at  Clissow, 
where  he  captured  five  hundred  ladies  belonging  to  the 
Polish  court,  whom  he  sent  home  unharmed.  His  brother- 
in-law,  Frederick  of  Holstein,  fell  on  this  occasion.  A  broken 
leg,  which  retained  Charles  at  Cracow,  retarded  the  cam- 


1194  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

paign,  notwithstanding  the  sharp  pursuit  of  Augustus  for 
four  days  by  the  Swedes  under  Reinschild,  from  whom  he 
eventually  escaped.  Charles  was,  meanwhile,  again  com- 
pelled to  oppose  the  Russians,  who  invaded  Finland,  and 
Poland  remained  in  tranquillity  until  1705,  when  he  again 
entered  that  country  and  took  Warsaw,  where  he  condemned 
the  Saxon  general,  Patkul,  who  is  said  to  have  defended  that 
city,  as  a  Livonian  by  birth  and  a  Swedish  subject  in  the  ser- 
vice of  the  enemy,  to  death.  Had  Charles,  instead  of  direct- 
ing his  attention  almost  solely  upon  Poland  and  Saxony, 
turned  the  whole  of  his  forces  at  first  against  Russia  and 
followed  up  the  victory  of  Narwa  by  the  destruction  of  the 
budding  creations  of  Peter  the  Great  on  the  Gulf  of  Finland, 
his  fate,  and  probably  that  of  Europe,  might  have  been  more 
fortunate.  His  thoughts  were,  however,  solely  directed  to 
the  elevation  of  another  sovereign  on  the  throne  of  Poland, 
and  young  Sobieski  having  been  surprised  by  Augustus  at 
Ohlau  in  Silesia  and  carried  into  Saxony,  Stanislaus  Lesc- 
zinsky  was  elected  in  his  stead  by  the  partisans  of  Sweden 
and  Poland.  The  Swedes  were,  meanwhile,  kept  in  check 
at  Punitz  by  the  Saxon  general,  Count  von  der  Schulenburg, 
who  procrastinated  the  war  by  his  skilful  manoeuvring.  His 
retreat  across  the  Oder  is  celebrated  in  the  annals  of  warfare. 
The  czar  being  again  driven  out  of  Lithuania  by  Charles,  and 
Schulenburg,  on  advancing  to  his  aid,  being  completely  routed 
by  Reinschild  at  Fraustadt,  in  1706,  Augustus  fell  back 
upon  Russia,  while  Charles  seized  the  opportunity  to  inarch 
rapidly  through  Silesia  into  Saxony,  where  he  was  hailed  as 
the  defender  of  the  Protestant  faith,  with  an  enthusiasm 
scarcely  inferior  to  that  with  which  Gustavus  Adolphus  had 
formerly  been  welcomed.1 

1  Augustus  had  rendered  himself  highly  unpopular  in  Saxony  by  his  tyranny 
and  still  more  so  by  his  secession  from  the  Protestant  church.  He  was  repre- 
sented, in  a  caricature  of  the  times,  driving  Saxony  into  Poland  on  a  wheelbar- 
row.    The  popular  song, 

"0  du  lieber  Augustin 
Alles  ist  Inn 
Polen  ist  weg," 
also  belongs  to  this  period. 


AGE    OF   LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1195 

This  bold  step  struck  Augustus  with  terror,  and  he  in- 
stantly sent  his  councillors,  Imhof  and  Pfingsten,  from  Po- 
land with  full  powers  to  conclude  peace  with  the  successful 
Swede,  and  a  treaty  was  hastily  concluded  between  them 
and  Charles,  which  alone  required  the  ratification  of  the 
Polish  monarch.  But  Augustus,  who  had  kept  his  allies  in 
ignorance  of  the  pending  negotiations,  had,  meanwhile,  been 
compelled  to  aid  the  Russians  in  an  engagement  at  Calisch 
against  the  Swedes,  in  which  the  former  proving  victorious, 
he  entered  Warsaw  in  triumph  and  declared  the  report  of 
peace  having  been  concluded  by  him  with  Charles,  false. 
Charles  was,  however,  already  in  possession  of  Saxony, 
and  Augustus  was  speedily  compelled  by  necessity  to  aban- 
don his  Russian  ally  and  to  sue  for  the  peace  he  had  just 
denied.  A  conference  was  held  between  the  two  monarchs, 
whose  personal  appearance  contrasted  as  strikingly  as  their 
characters;  Augustus,  gigantic  in  person,  magnificently  but 
effeminately  attired  in  false  and  curling  locks  and  cloth  of 
gold;  Charles,  less  in  stature,  but  a  thorough  soldier,  with 
a  small  hat  on  his  closely  shaven  head  (a  style  that  was 
afterward  imitated  by  Frederick  the  Great  and  Napoleon), 
dressed  in  a  coat  of  coarse  blue  cloth  with  copper  buttons, 
with  enormous  boots  and  a  long  sword.  Peace  was  con- 
cluded at  Altranstadt.  Augustus  renounced  the  throne  of 
Poland  and  delivered  up  young  Sobieski  and  the  unfortu- 
nate Patkul,  who,  although  at  that  time  Russian  ambassa- 
dor at  Dresden,  was  claimed  by  Charles  as  a  Livonian,  a 
Swedish  subject  by  birth,  and  barbarously  put  to  the  rack. 
According  to  Patkul's  own  account,  Augustus  delivered  him 
up  in  revenge  for  his  having  once  ventured  to  reproach  him 
for  having  spent  a  large  sum  of  money,  intended  for  the  levy 
of  troops,  on  his  mistresses  and  in  the  purchase  of  jewelry. 
Flemming,  who  was  also  demanded  by  Charles,  knew  his 
master  too  well  to  trust  him  and  withdrew  a  while  into 
Prussia.  Augustus,  in  order  to  appease  the  indignation 
displayed  by  Russia  on  the  conclusion  of  this  peace, 
threw    his   unfortunate   councillors,    Imhof   and   Phngsteu, 


1196  THE    HISTORY    OF    GERMANY 

under  a  false  charge  of  having  overstepped  their  author- 
ity, into  prison. 

The  residence  of  Charles  XII.  in  Saxony,  in  1706,  was 
very  remarkable.  On  his  march  through  Silesia,  the  perse- 
cuted Protestants  in  that  country  supplicated  his  aid.  He 
earnestly  addressed  the  emperor  on  their  behalf,  sent  four 
regiments  up  the  country  with  orders,  in  case  of  necessity, 
to  retake  possession  by  force  of  the  churches,  of  which  the 
Protestants  had  been  deprived  by  the  Jesuits,  and  compelled 
the  emperor,  who,  at  that  time  occupied  with  France,  avoided 
raising  a  fresh  antagonist,  to  restore  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
five  churches  to  the  Lutherans  and  to  permit  six  new  ones  to 
be  built;  but  Charles  no  sooner  quitted  the  country,  in  order 
to  penetrate  into  the  steppes  of  Russia,  than  Joseph  published 
a  severe  edict  against  the  increasing  apostasy,  on  account  of 
the  numbers  of  Protestants  who  now  avowed  their  faith  and 
crowded  to  the  new  churches.  Banishment  for  life  and  con- 
fiscation were  the  punishments  awarded  to  every  apostate 
Catholic. — Charles  fixed  his  headquarters  at  Altranstadt  in 
Saxony,  where,  as  sovereign  of  the  country,  he  levied  con- 
tributions and  recruited  his  army.  While  here,  he  received 
a  visit  from  Marlborough,  the  celebrated  English  general, 
who  persuaded  him  to  grant  peace  to  Germany,  then  har- 
assed by  France,  and  to  turn  his  arms  against  Rifssia.  An 
alliance  between  France,  Sweden,  and  Turkey,  at  that  period, 
would  have  ruined  the  empire. 

In  1709,  Charles  invaded  Russia  at  the  head  of  forty  thou- 
sand men,  most  of  whom  had  been  raised  iu  Germany,  crossed 
the  Beresina  (Napoleon  followed  in  his  steps)  at  Borissow, 
took  the  Russian  fortifications  at  Holowczyn  (swimming  the 
river  Wabis,  in  which  he  sank  up  to  his  neck)  by  storm,  at 
one  time  fell  among  the  Calmucks,  numbers  of  whom  he 
slew  with  his  own  hand,  and  pursued  the  flying  enemy  until 
he  was  himself  lost  among  the  wide  forests  and  morasses. 
The  artillery  sank  in  the  swamps,  the  men  perished  for  want 
of  food.  General  Lowenhaupt,  when  attempting  to  join  him 
with  a  fresh  body  of  troops  from  Sweden,  was  waylaid  and 


AGE   OF   LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1197 

defeated,  after  a  desperate  conflict  that  lasted  three  days,  by 
the  czar  at  Liesca,  notwithstanding  which  he  succeeded  in 
joining  him  with  six  thousand  men.  Charles,  after  long  and 
vainly  endeavoring  to  overtake  the  retreating  enemy,  who 
(as  during  Napoleon's  invasion)  laid  the  country  waste 
through  which  he  advanced,  now  led  his  wearied  army 
southward  in  order  to  form  a  junction  with  Mazeppa,  the 
Hetman  of  the  Cossacks,  who  hoped  by  his  aid  to  shake  off 
the  Kussian  yoke.  The  country  through  which  the  Swedish 
monarch  passed  had  been  converted  into  a  desert  by  the  fly- 
ing Russians,  and,  in  order  to  gain  better  winter  quarters, 
he  advanced,  in  the  depth  of  the  winter  of  1708-9,  as  far  aa 
Gaditsch.  Thousands  perished  of  cold  on  the  way  thither, 
and,  in  the  spring  and  summer,  his  army  was  so  much  re- 
duced in  strength  that  the  Russians  regained  courage  and 
ventured  with  their  overwhelming  numbers  to  attack  him 
as  he  lay  before  Pultowa.  The  Russian  army  had  been, 
moreover,  disciplined,  and  was  at  the  time  commanded  by 
Germans  (Ronne,  Goltz,  Pflug,  Bauer,  and  Kruse).  Charles, 
who  had  been  wounded  in  the  foot  while  incautiously  ex- 
posing himself  to  the  fire  from  the  walls,  was  borne  about 
in  a  litter,  which,  during  the  engagement,  was  shattered  by 
the  Russian  artillery.  The  Swedes,  whose  ranks  had  been 
thinned  by  cold  and  starvation,  were,  notwithstanding 
their  bravery,  completely  put  to  the  rout;  Charles  escaped 
with  extreme  difficulty.  The  last  salvo  was  given  by  Prince 
Maximilian  Emanuel  of  Wurtemberg,  who  commanded  a 
Swedish  regiment.  He  was  taken  prisoner  and  was  re- 
ceived with  great  honor  by  the  czar.  Charles  fled  with  a 
few  of  his  followers  into  Turkey.  The  division  of  the  Swed- 
ish army  under  Lowenhaupt  was  overtaken  and  captured 
by  the  Russians  on  the  Dnieper. 

The  fugitive  monarch  was  royally  welcomed  by  the  Porte 
and  allowed  to  fix  his  residence  at  Bender,  whence  he  con- 
ducted a  Turkish  war  against  Russia.  The  grand  vizier  had 
already  taken  the  field  at  the  head  of  two  hundred  thousand 
men  and  had  closely  shut  up  the  czar  in  the  Crimea.    Charles, 


1198  THE    HISTORY    OF    GERMANY 

to  whom,  to  his  great  mortification,  the  command  of  the  army 
had  not  been  intrusted,  galloped  impatiently  into  the  camp, 
but  arrived  too  late  to  hinder  the  czar's  escape.  From  this 
day  dates  the  prosperity  of  Russia.  The  plans  of  the  Swed- 
ish monarch  were  frustrated  by  a  German  woman,  Martha, 
a  native  of  Rinteln  in  Esthonia,  a  Lutheran,  the  maid-ser- 
vant of  a  clergyman  of  Marienburg.  She  married  a  Swed- 
ish dragoon,  was  carried  off  by  the  Russians,  became  succes- 
sively slave  and  mistress  to  Scheremetofl',  Menzikoff,  and  the 
czar,  and,  under  the  name  of  Catherine,  czarina  and  empress 
of  all  the  Russias.  With  her  jewels  she  bribed  the  grand 
vizier  to  allow  the  Russians  to  escape.  Her  ring  was  after- 
ward discovered  among  the  treasures  of  the  murdered 
vizier. 

Livonia  and  Esthonia,  until  now  belonging  to  Sweden, 
although  by  right  German,  fell,  on  the  defeat  of  the  Swedes 
at  Pultowa,  under  the  rule  of  Russia.  Riga  capitulated 
in  1710,  after  a  heroic  defence,  and  Courland  was  ac- 
quired by  Peter,  who  married  the  last  duke  of  that  country 
to  his  niece,  Anna,  and  killed  him  with  excessive  drinking. 
On  Dantzig,  of  which  he  also  coveted  the  possession,  he  im- 
posed a  tribute  of  four  hundred  thousand  dollars. 

Peter  next  attacked  Pomerania  with  a  view  of  completely 
annihilating  the  power  of  Sweden.  Russia,  Denmark,  and 
Poland,  where  Augustus  had  reascended  the  throne,  again 
coalesced.  An  anti-league,  known  as  the  alliance  of  Tht 
Hague,  was  formed  for  the  maintenance  of  peace  and  foi 
the  protection  of  Sweden  against  her  neighbors,  by  England, 
Holland,  and  the  emperor.  Little  energy  was,  however,  dis- 
played on  her  behalf.  The  Danes  who  had  invaded  Sweden 
were,  it  is  true,  compelled  to  retire,  but  were  allowed  to  take 
possession  of  the  bishoprics  of  Bremen  and  Verdun,  in  which 
they  were  aided  by  an  insurrection  of  the  inhabitants,  occa- 
sioned by  the  tyranny  of  the  Swedish  governors.  Stade  was 
burned  down.  The  Saxons  seized  the  whole  of  Poland  on 
the  departure  of  Stanislaus,  who,  abandoned  by  his  parti- 
sans,   took  refuge   with  Charles  in  Turkey.     In  1712,    the 


AGE    OF   LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1109 

allied  powers  of  Saxony  and  Russia  took  possession  of  Swe- 
dish Pomerania,  Stralsund  and  Wismar  alone  excepted. 
Stenbock,  who  had  brought  a  fresh  body  of  sixteen  thou- 
sand men  from  Sweden,  defeated  the  allies  at  Gadebusch, 
but  incurred  the  detestation  of  the  Germans  by  the  cruelty 
with  which,  during  the  severe  winter  of  1713,  he  burned 
down  the  city  of  Altona,  which  belonged  to  Denmark,  in 
revenge  for  the  destruction  of  Stade.  The  inhabitants,  ten 
thousand  in  number,  driven  out  of  the  burning  city,  were 
denied  a  refuge  in  Hamburg,  and  numbers  of  them  perished 
of  cold  and  hunger.  Stenbock  was  shortly  afterward  shut 
up  near  Tcenning  by  the  enemy  and  forced  to  yield.  (Capit- 
ulation of  Oldenwoth,  1713.)  The  czar  avenged  Altona, 
on  whose  unfortunate  inhabitants  he  bestowed  a  thousand 
rubles,  by  burning  Garz  and  Wolgast  to  the  ground  and 
treating  their  inhabitants  with  horrid  barbarity.  These 
successes  decided  Prussia,  until  now  vacillating,  to  join  the 
anti-Swedish  league  in  1714,  for  which  she  was  rewarded 
by  the  promise  of  the  future  possession  of  Stettin. 

Turkey,  although  threatened  by  the  rising  power  of  the 
Russian  empire,  was  a  prey  to  the  petty  intrigues  of  the 
seraglio,  and  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  the  remonstrances  of 
Charles  XII.,  who  urged  the  necessity  of  carrying  on  the 
war.  He  received  a  hint  to  quit  the  coantry,  but,  instead 
of  complying,  barricaded  his  house,  which  he  defended 
against  several  thousand  Turks,  numbers  of  whom  fell  by 
his  hand,  but  was  at  length  seized  and  carried  out  of  the 
country.  With  equal  obstinacy,  he  remained  for  ten  months 
in  bed  at  Demotika.  He  had,  notwithstanding,  succeeded 
in  successively  overthrowing  four  grand  viziers,  and  his  long 
stay  in  Turkey  was  fully  justified  by  the  hope  of  placing  him- 
self at  the  head  of  a  powerful  Turkish  army.  After  having 
exhausted  every  means  of  persuasion  in  his  negotiations  to 
that  effect  with  the  Porte,  he  once  more  mounted  on  horse- 
back, and,  solely  accompanied  by  Colonel  During,  made  in 
sixteen  days  a  circuit  through  Hungary,  Austria,  Bavaria, 
the  Pfalz,  Westphalia,  and  Mecklenburg  to  Stralsund,  in  or- 


1200  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

der  to  avoid  the  Saxons  and  Prussians,  and  passing  on  his 
way  through  Cassel,  where,  notwithstanding  the  marriage 
that  had  lately  taken  place  between  his  second  sister,  Ulrica 
Eleonore,  and  Frederick,  hereditary  prince  of  Hesse-Cassel, 
he  preserved  a  strict  incognito.  The  conduct  of  the  newly- 
married  pair,  who  had,  during  his  absence,  deeply  intrigued 
with  the  Swedish  nobility,  who,  in  the  event  of  Charles's 
death,  projected  the  establishment  of  an  oligarchical  govern- 
ment, had  greatly  displeased  the  king,  who  had  frustrated 
Frederick's  hopes  of  succeeding  to  the  throne  by  declaring 
the  young  duke  of  Holstein,  his  elder  sister's  son,  his  lawful 
heir.' — Charles  reached  Stralsund  during  a  dark  November 
night,  in  1714.  The  city  was  at  the  time  besieged  by  his 
numerous  opponents,  and,  after  gallantly  defending  it  for 
some  months,  he  was  at  length  compelled  to  fly  to  Sweden. 
Wismar  also  fell. 

The  war  was  subsequently  carried  on  at  sea,  generally  to 
the  prejudice  of  Sweden,  and  Charles  made  some  attempts 
upon  Norway.  Goertz,  the  minister  of  Holstein,  who  en- 
tered into  a  close  compact  with  Charles,  and,  by  his  diplo- 
matic arts,  endeavored  to  dissolve  the  anti-Swedish  league, 
nevertheless  displayed  the  greatest  energy.  The  jealousy 
of  Denmark  being  roused  by  a  slight  advantage  gained  by 
the  Russian  fleet  over  that  of  Sweden,  Goertz  seized  the  op- 
portunity to  open  secret  negotiations  with  the  czar,  and  a 
treaty  was  set  on  foot  by  which  Russia  was  to  retain  her 
conquests  on  the  Gulf  of  Finland,  and  Stanislaus  was  to 
be  replaced  on  the  throne  of  Poland.  An  alliance  was 
also  proposed  between  Charles  and  Peter's  daughter,  the 
Grandduchess  Anna.  The  whole  of  the  negotiations  were, 
however,  detected  by  the  seizure  of  a  Swedish  despatch 
by  the  Danes.  Denmark  naturally  viewed  an  alliance 
between  Sweden  and  Russia  with  dread;  Saxony  beheld 
Poland  slipping  from  her  grasp;  Hanover  saw  the  down- 
fall of  her  projects  upon  Bremen  and  Verdun,  and  Prussia 
that  of  hers  upon  Stettin;  Charles's  marriage  endangered 
alike  the  succession  of  Frederick  of  Hesse  and  that  of  the 


AGE   OF   LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1201 

young  duke  of  Holstein  to  the  throne,  while  the  power  he 
thereby  acquired  gave  a  death-blow  to  the  aspirations  of  the 
Swedish  aristocracy,  and  his  assassination,  before  Gcertz's 
arrival  in  Sweden  with  the  treaty  already  signed  by  the 
czar,  was,  consequently,  resolved  upon.  The  leader  of  this 
conspiracy  and  the  number  of  his  accomplices  are  still  un- 
known, but  it  appears  that  foreign  powers,  besides  a  faction 
in  Sweden,  were  implicated  in  this  affair.  A  small  Swedish 
force  under  Armfeldt  had  perished  from  cold  while  crossing 
the  mountains  that  separate  Norway  from  Sweden;  and  an- 
other, commanded  by  Charles  in  person,  was  besieging  the 
fortress  of  Friedrichshall  in  the  south  of  Norway,  when  the 
king  was  shot  through  the  head  while  leaning  over  the  re- 
doubt, December  11,  1718.  Frederick  of  Hesse- Cassel  in- 
stantly placed  himself  at  the  head  of  the  council  of  war, 
divided  the  whole  contents  of  the  military  chest  among  the 
superior  officers,  and  hastily  withdrew  to  Sweden  to  make 
terms  with  the  aristocracy,  on  whose  favor  his  accession  to 
the  throne  solely  depended.  The  duke  of  Holstein,  who  had 
also  helped  himself  to  the  contents  of  the  military  chest,  was 
excluded  from  the  succession,  and  Schleswig  was,  without 
his  concurrence,  ceded  by  Sweden  to  Denmark,  in  order  to 
pacify  her  foreign  neighbors.  The  czar  was  richly  indemni- 
fied for  the  frustration  of  his  projected  alliance  by  the  ces- 
sion of  the  whole  of  Livonia  and  Esthonia,  while  Saxony  was 
confirmed  in  the  possession  of  Poland,  Hanover  in  that  of  the 
bishoprics  of  Bremen  and  Verdun,  besides  receiving  an  in- 
demnity of  a  million  dollars,  and  Prussia  was  gratified  with 
the  gift  of  Stettin,  the  whole  of  the  tract  of  country  lying 
between  the  Oder  and  the  Peene,  and  three  million  dollars. 
Gcertz  fell  a  sacrifice  to  this  peaceful  policy  and  was  sen- 
tenced to  the  block  by  the  Swedish  war  council. 

Northern  Pomerania  and  its  capital,  Stralsund,  now  com- 
prised the  whole  of  the  Swedish  possessions  on  this  side  the 
Baltic.  The  power  of  Sweden  had  deeply  fallen.  On  the 
demise  of  Frederick  of  Hesse,  in  1751,  Adolf  Frederick  of 
Holstcin-Gottorp  mounted  the  throne,   but  was  powerless 


1202  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

against  the  aristocracy,  which  ere  long  fell  under  Russian 
influence. 

Russia  had  now  supplanted  Sweden  as  the  greatest  north- 
ern power.  In  1700,  the  city  of  Petersburg  had  been  built 
on  the  Gulf  of  Finland  by  the  czar,  who  had  drawn  thither 
a  number  of  German  artificers,  introduced  a  superior  style 
of  discipline  into  his  army,  and  created  a  navy.  The  Ger- 
man Livonians  also  aided  his  endeavors  for  the  extension 
of  the  power  of  Russia  to  the  prejudice  of  their  fatherland. 
Russian  ambassadors  bent  the  courts  of  Sweden,  Denmark, 
and  Poland  to  his  interests.  The  Russian  force  under  Menzi- 
koff  remained  stationary  in  Germany  and  perpetrated  the 
most  shameful  acts  of  violence.  Hamburg  was  compelled 
to  pay  a  contribution  of  two  hundred  thousand  dollars,  Lu- 
beck  one  hundred  thousand  silver  marks.  In  Mecklenburg, 
they  seized  Posto  under  pretext  of  aiding  the  duke,  Charles 
Leopold  of  Schwerin,  against  his  rebellious  Estates.  The 
nobility  fled  the  country.  A  part  of  the  Russian  troops 
subsequently  returned  home,  leaving  a  body  of  sixteen  thou- 
sand men  under  General  Weide  to  vex  the  country,  nor  was 
it  until  the  conclusion  of  peace  in  1719  that  they  were  finally 
driven  across  the  frontier  by  the  Hanoverian  troops  after  an 
obstinate  defence  at  Walsmuhlen.  Charles  Leopold  was  de- 
posed and  his  brother,  Christian  Louis,  placed  at  the  head  of 
the  government.  Charles  fled  to  Dantzig,  where  he  formed 
a  conspiracy  against  his  brother's  life,  which  was  discovered, 
and  several  of  his  accomplices  were  put  to  the  wheel,  hanged, 
or  beheaded  in  1724.  He  afterward  attempted  to  revolu- 
tionize and  regain  possession  of  the  country  by  force,  and 
for  that  purpose  collected  several  thousand  of  the  peasantry, 
but  was  defeated  at  Neustadt  and  a  second  time  expelled, 
1733. 

The  issue  of  the  Northern  war  produced  a  melancholy 
reaction  in  Poland.  The  restoration  of  Augustus  to  the 
throne,  by  Russia,  had  greatly  imbittered  the  Poles,  and 
the  Saxons  fell  frequent  victims  to  secret  assassination. 
Augustus,  in  revenge,  sought  to  curb  the  spirit  of  the  peo- 


AGE   OF  LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1203 

p]e  by  the  most  violent  measures,  and  placed  them  totally 
under  the  control  of  the  Jesuits.  In  1724,  the  citizens  of 
Thorn  being  compelled  to  bend  the  knee  during  a  passing 
procession  by  the  Jesuits,  by  whom  some  innocent  persons 
were  moreover  treated  with  horrible  cruelty,  the  populace 
revolted,  rescued  one  of  their  prisoners,  and  destroyed  part 
of  the  Jesuit  college.  The  burgomaster,  Rcesner,  together 
with  eight  of  the  citizens,  were,  in  revenge,  sentenced  to 
the  block  by  a  criminal  court,  established  for  that  purpose 
by  the  king.  The  executioner,  tearing  the  heart  from  the 
palpitating  bosom  of  one  of  the  victims,  exclaimed,  "Behold 
a  Lutheran's  heart."  Eighty  of  the  citizens  were  thrown 
into  prison,  the  Lutheran  church  was  given  up  to  the  Jesuits, 
and  a  heavy  contribution  laid  upon  the  city. 

CCXXX.    The  /Spanish   War  of  Succession 

On  the  Rhine,  a  fresh  war  with  France,  more  fearful  in 
character  than  any  of  its  predecessors,  was  carried  on  simul- 
taneously with  that  in  the  North,  which  caused  little  disturb- 
ance to  Germany.  Charles  II.,  the  last  of  the  Habsburg 
dynasty  in  Spain,  expired  in  1700,  leaving  two  daugh- 
ters, Maria  Theresa,  consort  of  Louis  XIV.,  and  Margaretha 
Theresa,  consort  of  the  emperor,  Leopold  I.  The  Spanish 
throne  being  hereditary  also  in  the  female  line,  the  agnati, 
the  male  branch  of  the  Habsburgs  in  Austria,  were,  conse- 
quently, excluded  from  the  succession,  which  fell  to  Maria 
Theresa  as  the  eldest  daughter  of  the  deceased  monarch,  but 
she,  prior  to  her  union  with  Louis,  having  solemnly  re- 
nounced her  right,  it  passed  to  her  younger  sister,  the  Ger- 
man empress.  The  French  ambassadors  and  the  pope,  who 
once  more  favored  France  against  Germany,  had,  neverthe- 
less, induced  the  weak-minded  Spanish  monarch  to  declare 
in  his  will  the  renunciation  of  Maria  Theresa  null,  and 
Philip,  duke  d'Anjou,  his  successor.  This  will  was  pro- 
tested against  by  the  emperor.  The  Spaniards  were,  even  at 
this  period,  too  degraded  to  give  force  to  public  opinion  and 


1204  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

looked  on  with  indifference,  while  Austria  and  France  strove 
for  the  rich  prize,  which,  besides  Spain,  comprehended  Na- 
ples, Sicily,  Milan,  the  Netherlands,  and  a  large  territory  in 
America,  and  a  furious  contest,  in  which  all  the  powers  of 
Western  Europe  declared,  as  their  interests  dictated,  in  favor 
either  of  France  or  Austria,  ensued. 

England  and  Holland,  the  hereditary  foes  of  France,  sided 
with  Austria.  William  of  Orange  returned  from  England 
in  ill  health  and  expired  at  Loo,  in  1702,  after  zealously 
forwarding  the  league  against  France.  He  was  succeeded 
on  the  English  throne  by  Anne,  the  sister  of  his  deceased 
consort,  Mary,  one  of  the  daughters  of  the  deposed  king, 
James  II.  The  widow  of  George,  prince  of  Denmark,  she 
was  already  in  league  with  the  Protestant  party  and  had  no 
other  alternative  than  to  pursue  the  policy  of  her  predecessor 
on  the  throne  of  England,  by  which  she  at  once  secured  the 
affection  of  her  subjects.  Marlborough,  the  husband  of  the 
queen's  friend  and  companion,  was  at  the  head  of  affairs 
in  England,  and  Heinsius  at  the  head  of  those  of  Holland. 
Both  of  these  statesmen  followed  in  the  steps  of  William  of 
Orange.  Prussia  was  won  over  by  Austria  by  being  ele- 
vated to  a  kingdom,  and  Hanover  by  the  gift  of  the  electoral 
hat.  Saxony  was  too  deeply  occupied  with  Poland  to  take 
part  in  the  war  with  France;  her  king,  however,  subsidized 
by  Holland  and  England,  sent  troops  with  meagre  pay  into 
the  field  and  pocketed  the  overplus. 

Joseph  Clement,  elector  of  Cologne,  notwithstanding  the 
protestation  of  his  chapter,  and,  on  this  occasion,  also  his 
brother  Maximilian  Emanuel,  elector  of  Bavaria,  whom 
France  had  promised  to  confirm  in  the  hereditary  posses- 
sion of  the  Netherlands,  unmoved  by  the  urgent  entreaties 
of  his  Estates,  again  embraced  the  French  cause.  Antony 
Ulric  of  Wolfenbuttel,  jealous  of  the  electoral  hat  bestowed 
upon  the  house  of  Luneburg- Hanover,  raised  troops  for 
France,  in  which  he  was  imitated  by  the  petty  duke  of 
Gotha.  Both  of  these  princes  were  speedily  disarmed.  The 
Swabian  and  Franconian  circles,   awed  by   Strasburg,    de- 


AGE   OF  LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1205 

dared  themselves  neutral.  In  Italy,  Louis  XIV.  was  fa- 
vored by  Victor  Amadeus,  duke  of  Savoy,  whose  daughter 
he  had  united  to  his  grandson  Philip,  the  Spanish  usurper, 
by  Charles,  duke  of  Mantua,  and  by  the  pope,  who  dreaded 
the  preponderance  of  the  imperial  house  in  case  of  its  acces- 
sion to  Milan,  Naples,  and  Spain.  Kagoczy,  supported  by 
the  Jesuits  and  by  French  gold,  again  rose  m  Hungary. 

The  campaign  was  opened  by  the  French  in  Italy,  in 
1701.  Marshal  Catinat  took  possession  of  Lombardy  and  oc- 
cupied all  the  Alpine  passes,  notwithstanding  which,  Prince 
Eugene,  the  commander  of  the  imperial  forces,  eluded  his 
vigilance  by  leading  his  army  across  the  frightful  and  hith- 
erto impassable  rocks  of  the  Val  Fredda.  The  artillery  and 
baggage  were  borne  on  the  shoulders  of  the  men  or  drawn 
along  by  ropes.  Passing  through  the  pathless  Sette  Com- 
muni,  seven  remarkable  ancient  German  communes  planted 
in  the  midst  of  Italians,  he  descended  near  Vicenza  into  the 
plains  of  Lombardy,  to  the  terror  and  surprise  of  Catinat, 
who  instantly  retired  and  formed  a  junction  with  Villeroi. 
They  were  signally  defeated  at  Chiari  in  the  vicinity  of 
Brescia.  The  two  armies  kept  each  other  in  check  through- 
out the  winter.  On  the  1st  of  February,  1702,  at  three 
A.M.,  Eugene  forced  his  way  into  Cremona,  surprised  the 
sleeping  French,  and  took  Villeroi,  who  had  not  long  before 
boasted  that  he  would  set  some  of  the  Austrian  princes 
dancing  on  Shrove-tide,  prisoner.  Cremona  proved  unten- 
able, and  the  French  jestingly  thanked  the  prince  for  hav- 
ing delivered  them  from  so  bad  a  general  as  Villeroi,  whom 
Vendome,  a  man  of  great  talent,  was  sent  to  replace  by 
Louis  XIV.,  at  the  head  of  a  large  body  of  reinforcements, 
and  Eugene,  whom  the  imperial  military  council  ever  left  ill 
provided  with  money  and  ammunition,  was  compelled  to  re- 
tire, but,  notwithstanding  the  manoeuvres  of  the  enemy,  he 
contrived  to  maintain  his  footing  in  Lombardy,  and,  seizing 
his  opportunity,  succeeded  in  surprising  and  beating  the  su- 
perior forces  of  his  opponents  at  Luzara.  The  want  of  troops 
disabled  him  from  following  up  bis  advantage,  and  in  the 


1206  THE    HISTORY   OF    GERMANY 

ensuing  year,  1703,  he  was  called  into  Hungary  to  take  the 
field  against  Ragoczy,  and  Italy  once  more  fell  into  the  hands 
of  the  French. 

In  the  Netherlands,  which  had,  simultaneously  with  Italy, 
been  invaded  by  the  French,  the  fortresses  had  been  thrown 
open  to  them  by  the  perfidious  stadtholder,  the  elector  of  Ba- 
varia, whose  example  was  imitated  by  his  brother  of  Cologne. 
They  were,  however,  actively  opposed  by  the  English  and 
Dutch.  Marlborough's  genius  as  a  commander  was  still  in 
the  bud.  In  1702,  he  contented  himself  with  the  occupation 
of  the  territory  of  Liege;  in  1703,  with  that  of  Cologne  and 
with  keeping  the  enemy  in  check.  The  elector  of  Cologne, 
who,  in  1702,  had  overrun  the  upper  country  with  French 
troops  and  boasted  that  not  a  single  peasant  existed  within 
twenty  miles  in  that  province,  was  compelled,  after  losing 
Bonn,  to  seek  refuge  in  France. 

On  the  Upper  Khine,  the  imperial  army,  with  which  was 
the  emperor's  son,  the  Roman  king,  Joseph,  was  commanded 
by  the  venerable  Turkish  conqueror,  Louis,  Margrave  of 
Baden.  The  honor  of  taking  Landau — which  had  been  forti- 
fied on  Vauban's  new  plan,  was  deemed  impregnable  by  the 
French  and  was  defended  by  Melac — was  committed  to  the 
young  prince,  who  acted  according  to  the  advice  of  his  vet- 
eran marshal,  and  the  place  capitulated  on  the  9th  of  Sep- 
tember, 1702,  the  very  day  on  which  Ulm  was  treacherously 
seized  by  the  elector  of  Bavaria,  and  a  dangerous  diversion 
was  created  to  the  rear  of  the  imperialists.  In  October,  the 
French  crossed  the  Rhine  at  Huningen,  in  order  to  form  a 
junction  with  the  electoral  troops,  but  were  beaten  back  at 
Friedlingen  by  the  Margrave,  who,  in  the  ensuing  cam- 
paign, that  of  1703,  again  confined  himself  to  the  defensive 
and  sought  by  his  manoeuvres  to  prevent  the  invasion  of 
Germany  by  the  French  and  their  junction  with  the  Bava- 
rian troops, a  division  of  whom,  under  Count  Arco,  attempting 
to  advance  upon  Huningen,  were  forced  by  General  Styrum 
to  retreat  upon  Waldshut.  Marshal  Villars,  nevertheless, 
succeeded,  in  May,  in  stealing  through  the  narrow  passes  of 


AGE    OF  LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1207 

the  Black  Forest  to  Tuttiingen,  where  he  joined  the  Bava- 
rian  army  on  its  return  up  the  Danube.  Maximilian  and 
Villars  met  as  ancient  friends,  but  the  impatience  of  the 
German  elector  was  ere  long  roused  by  the  arrogance  of  the 
French,  and,  although  their  united  forces  might  have  en- 
abled them  to  cope  with  the  imperialists  and  to  invade 
Austria,  a  separation  was  resolved  upon ;  Villars  undertook 
to  watch  the  movements  of  the  imperialists,  and  the  elector 
entered  the  Tyrol,  through  which  Marshal  Vendome  was 
advancing  from  Italy.  The  junction  of  the  French  armies, 
at  that  time  divided  by  the  Alps,  was  of  the  highest  impor- 
tance for  their  mutual  support  and  for  bringing  their  forces 
to  bear  with  redoubled  strength  on  any  given  point. 

In  June,  the  elector  entered  the  Tyrol  at  the  head  of  six- 
teen thousand  men.  The  fortress  of  Kufstein  surrendered, 
but  was  burned  with  the  whole  of  the  garrison,  the  com- 
mandant, who  held  the  keys,  being  absent,  and  no  one  being 
able  to  get  out.  Innsbruck,  the  capital  of  the  Tyrol,  also 
fell,  and  a  squadron  of  Bavarians,  under  General  Nouvion, 
marched  thence  up  the  Inn,  while  the  elector  mounted  the 
Brenner  with  the  main  body.  Signal-fires  shone  during  the 
night  on  every  mountain,  and  the  brave  Tyrolese,  headed 
by  Christian  Koill  of  Kutzbuhel  and  the  postmaster,  Auf- 
schneider,  of  Weydra,  flew  to  arms.  The  struggle  com- 
menced in  the  valley  of  the  Upper  Inn.  Martin  Stertzinger, 
sheriff  of  Landeck,  awaited  Nouvion's  squadron  behind  the 
broken  bridge  of  Pontlaz,  where  the  road  mounts  to  the  Fin- 
stermunzthal.  The  Bavarians  vainly  attempted  to  cross  the 
water  and  to  disperse  the  bold  sharpshooters  on  the  opposite 
bank,  who  spread  death  among  their  ranks.  On  a  sudden,  a 
terrific  crash  was  heard  to  their  rear,  the  mountains  seemed 
to  be  falling  on  their  heads,  and  enormous  stones  and  trunks 
of  trees,  set  in  motion  by  the  concealed  peasantry,  rolled  with 
frightful  rapidity  upon  their  serried  ranks,  casting  both  horses 
and  riders  into  the  rushing  stream.  The  peasants  had  also 
fabricated  cannons,  capable  of  bearing  ten  rounds,  out  of 
hollowed  fir-stems.     Nouvion  fled  with  the  remnant  of  his 


1208  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

forces,  but  found  the  bridge  at  Zarns  broken  down  and  was 
compelled  to  yield.  General  Portia  fell  beneath  the  peas- 
ants' hatchets. — The  elector  had,  meanwhile,  marched  up 
the  Brenner  along  the  highroad  toward  Italy.  But  he  was 
awaited  above,  behind  their  fortifications,  by  fresh  troops  of 
peasantry,  and,  before  it  was  possible  for  him  to  attack  them, 
the  news  arrived  of  the  insurrection  to  his  rear.  General 
Verrito,  whom  he  had  left  at  Hall,  which  he  had  strongly 
fortified,  had  been  attacked  by  the  peasants  called  to  assist 
in  the  works  and  killed  by  the  blows  of  their  hammers  (he 
having  spread  a  report  of  his  invulnerability).  The  whole 
of  the  Bavarian  garrison  had  been  slain,  and  all  the  other 
Bavarian  posts  to  his  rear  razed.  The  treasures  in  the  cas- 
tle of  Ambras,  which  the  elector  had  caused  to  be  packed 
ready  for  removal,  were  retaken  by  the  peasantry.  Inns- 
bruck revolted.  The  loss  of  the  Scharnitz,  the  most  impor- 
tant of  the  mountain  passes  between  the  Tyrol  and  Bavaria, 
which  was  seized  by  an  officer,  named  Heindl,  belonging  to 
the  imperial  army,  with  the  assistance  of  the  Bavarians, 
threatened  the  elector  with  the  greatest  danger.  This  pass 
and  that  of  Hall  in  the  valley  of  the  Inn,  the  only  paths  by 
which  he  could  retreat,  were  closed  by  the  Tyrolese,  in  the 
hope  of  shutting  him  in  and  taking  him  and  his  whole  army 
prisoners;  but,  after  a  terrible  melee  at  Zirl,  in  which  Count 
Arco  was  shot  close  to  his  side  by  a  Tyrolean  sharpshooter, 
who  mistook  him,  owing  to  the  richness  of  his  garb,  for  the 
elector,  he  succeeded  in  forcing  his  way  to  the  Scharnitz. 
Out  of  sixteen  thousand  Bavarians,  five  thousand  alone 
regained  their  native  country.  Vendome  had  merely  suc- 
ceeded in  reaching  Trent,  whence  he  was  repulsed,  and 
the  whole  plan  of  the  campaign  was  thus  frustrated  by  the 
native  valor  of  the  people.  Had  the  circle  of  Swabia,  Fran- 
conia,  the  Rhine,  and  Burgundy  risen  en  masse,  like  their 
Tyrolese  brethren,  how  speedily  might  not  the  French  in- 
vader have  been  chased  across  the  frontier! 

Their  example  remained  unfortunately  unimitated,  and 
Vi liars  was  allowed  unopposed  to  lay  Swabia  waste.     Landau 


AGE    OF  LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1209 

again  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  French,  and  a  bold  advance 
of  the  Margrave  of  Baden  upon  Augsburg,  with  the  design  of 
aiding  that  city  against  the  Bavarians,  miscarried  through 
the  jealousy  and  ill-will  of  Styrum,  who  allowed  himself  to 
be  surprised  and  defeated  at  Hochstadt.  Augsburg  was  laid 
under  contribution  by  the  Bavarians.  Breisach1  was  also 
pusillanimously  yielded  by  the  Counts  Arco  and  Marsigli  to 
the  French. 

The  war  was  carried  on  with  great  spirit  in  the  campaign 
of  1704.  Prince  Eugene  returned  from  Hungary,  leaving 
General  Heister  to  keep  Kagoczy,  whom  he  had  beaten  at 
Tirnau,  in  check,  and  joined  his  forces  with  those  of  Louis  of 
Baden.  Marlborough  also,  deceiving  Marshal  Villeroi,  who 
had,  on  his  liberation,  been  sent  to  oppose  him  in  the  Neth- 
erlands, hastened  to  Heilbronn  to  form  a  junction  with  his 
allies,  who  now  took  up  a  concentrated  position,  while  the 
French  forces  lay  scattered  in  various  directions.  Villeroi, 
who  had  hastened  in  pursuit  of  Marlborough,  joined  Tallard 
at  Strasburg,  but  was  prevented  by  Eugene,  who  threw  him- 
self in  his  way,  from  accompanying  him  through  the  Kinzig- 
thal  across  the  Black  Forest  to  the  Danube  for  the  purpose 
of  forming  a  junction,  in  which  Tallard  succeeded,  with 
Maximilian  and  Villars  at  Hochstadt.  Marlborough  and 
Louis,  however,  drove  the  Bavarians  under  Arco,  who  had 
again  taken  up  an  isolated  position,  from  the  Schellenberg, 
and  Eugene's  unexpected  arrival,  before  Villeroi  could  set  off 
in  his  pursuit,  placed  it  in  their  power  to  shut  Villars,  Tal- 
lard, and  Maximilian  up  in  Hochstadt.  The  obstinacy  of  the 
old  Margrave,  who  refused  to  hazard  an  engagement,  threat- 
ened to  frustrate  the  plan,  had  not  Eugene  and  Marlborough, 
well  acquainted  with  his  weak  point,  occupied  him  with  the 
siege  of  Ingolstadt,  while  they,  at  the  head  of  merely  fifty- 
two  thousand  men,  attacked  the  enemy,  fifty-eight  thousand 
strong,  so  unexpectedly  at  Hochstadt,  on  the  13th  August, 

1  The  following  words  wore  placed  over  the  bridge-gate  of  Breisach : 
"Limes  eram  Gallis,  nunc  pons  et  janua  flo, 
Si  porgunt,  Gallis  nullibi  limes  erit. " 

Germany.     Vol.  III. — 13 


1210  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

1704,  as  almost  to  annihilate  him.  The  French  lost  twenty 
thousand  dead  and  wounded;  fifteen  thousand  under  Mar- 
shal Tallard  were  cut  off  and  taken  prisoners;  the  Bavarians 
alone  escaping  across  the  Danube  toward  the  Rhine.  The 
Swiss  mercenaries  under  General  Zurlauben  displayed  ex- 
treme bravery  and  repulsed  three  attacks.  The  General 
was  taken  prisoner  after  receiving  seven  wounds. — The 
news  of  this  glorious  victory  spread  joy  throughout  Ger- 
many. Marlborough  received  the  lordship  of  Mindelheim  in 
fee  and  was  created  Prince  of  the  German  empire.  Eugene 
took  possession  of  Bavaria.  Augsburg  and  Ulm  were  liber- 
ated. The  old  Margrave  marched  to  the  Rhine  and  retook 
Landau  and  Treves,  Villeroi  retreating  in  dismay.  Hagenau 
was  so  actively  besieged  by  Thungen  that  the  French  garri- 
son fled,  panic- struck,  during  the  night.  An  attack  upon 
Breisach  failed. 

Unfortunately,  however,  instead  of,  after  the  retreat  of 
the  French  depredators,  conciliating  the  Germans  and  once 
more  reuniting  them  in  their  true  interests,  the  Bavarians 
were  cruelly  forced  to  atone  for  the  guilt  of  their  prince. 
Prince  Eugene  is,  nevertheless,  free  from  reproach.  He 
expressly  warned  against  every  ill-treatment  of  the  people. 
The  emperor  annexed  all  the  country  between  Passau  and 
Salzburg  to  his  hereditary  provinces,  left  the  rest  of  Bavaria 
under  the  care  of  a  regency,  and  enrolled  all  the  young  men 
in  his  army.  The  nobility  and  the  public  officers  placed 
themselves  under  the  Austrian  rule,  as  the  safest  mode  of 
bearing  the  crisis,  and  were  consequently  spared.  The  whole 
weight  of  the  emperor's  wrath  fell  upon  the  wretched  peas- 
antry, who,  laden  with  exorbitant  dues  and  ground  to  the 
dust  with  the  heavy  charge  for  the  quartering  of  soldiery, 
assembled,  and,  in  a  public  address  to  the  diet  at  Ratisbon, 
declared  that  they  were  compelled  by  necessity  to  take  up 
arms.  The  imperial  government  at  Munich,  on  the  other 
hand,  declared  that  every  peasant,  taken  with  arms  in  his 
hand,  should  be  punished  "with  the  gallows  and  the  sword, 
the  banishment  of  his  children,  and  the  confiscation  of  the 


AGE   OF   LOUIS    THE  FOURTEENTH  1211 

whole  of  bis  property' ' ;  that  the  villages  of  the  rebels  should 
be  burned  down;  that  parents,  whose  children  had  taken  up 
arms,  should  share  the  punishment  awarded  to  them,  etc. 
Of  the  Bavarian  recruits  who  might  join  the  peasantry  only 
every  fifteenth  man  should,  "through  especial  clemency," 
be  put  to  death. 

Two  students,  Plinganser  and  Meindl,  and  the  postmas- 
ter, Hirner,  meanwhile,  led  the  peasants  to  the  field  and  were 
everywhere  victorious.  But,  on  the  formation  of  a  superior 
council  under  the  title  of  "defence  of  the  country,"  they 
were  joined  by  numbers  of  the  nobility,  who  merely  betrayed 
and  ruined  their  cause.  It  was  in  vain  that  the  latter  took 
Braunau  and  Schaerding,  formed  themselves  into  regiments 
under  different  colors,  and  compelled  the  Austrians  to  enter 
into  negotiation;  the  nobles  interfered  in  the  conferences, 
kept  the  peasants  either  in  the  dark  or  attempted  to  lead 
them  astray  and  into  disputes  among  themselves,  and  played 
into  the  emperor's  hands.  When  the  peasantry,  enraged  at 
the  procrastination,  attempted  to  seize  Munich  by  surprise, 
they  were  betrayed  by  a  public  officer,  (Ettlinger,  who  had 
hypocritically  set  himself  up  as  their  adviser.  The  imperial 
general,  Kriechbaum,  was  sent  with  all  speed  to  Munich. 
The  peasantry  were,  notwithstanding,  beforehand  with  him. 
The  suburb  Au  rose  in  open  insurrection;  Balthes,  the  smith, 
a  giant,  sixty-one  years  of  age,  under  the  cry  of  "Save  the 
children"  (the  Bavarian  princes,  who,  it  was  believed,  were 
to  be  carried  into  Austria),  forced  the  city  gate,  dashed  out 
the  brains  of  the  Austrian  sentinel  with  his  club,  and  opened 
a  way  for  the  peasantry,  who  got  part  of  the  city  into  their 
hands,  but  (Ettlinger,  who  managed  the  communication  be- 
tween the  principal  body  of  the  peasantry,  purposely  either 
withheld  or  spread  false  news,  in  consequence  of  which  the 
party  that  had  forced  its  way  into  the  city  was  left  without 
reinforcements  and  was  soon  placed  between  two  fires,  be- 
ing attacked  in  front  by  General  Wendt,  who  made  a  sally 
from  the  town,  while  General  Kriechbaum  fell  upon  their 
rear.    Fighting  at  disadvantage  on  foot,  continually  charged 


1212  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

by  the  enemy's  horse,  they  retreated  to  Sendling,  where  the 
survivors,  headed  by  a  Frenchman,  named  Gautier,  in- 
trenched themselves  in  the  churchyard,  which  they  defended 
to  the  last.  Fifteen  hundred  were  slain,  last  of  all  the  brave 
smith,  1705.  The  wounded  were  dragged  back  to  Munich 
and  left  to  freeze  in  their  blood  in  the  open  street  during 
the  whole  of  the  winter  night,  Christmas,  "as  a  terrible  ex- 
ample to  all  faithless  subjects."  Colonel  Truchsess  of  the 
imperialists  had,  meanwhile,  taken  the  town  of  Kelheim  by 
surprise  and  put  the  mandate  into  terrible  execution.  The 
main  body  of  the  peasantry  was  still  of  imposing  strength, 
but  had  separated  for  the  purpose  of  opposing  the  various 
divisions  of  the  enemy;  several  of  the  leaders,  moreover, 
were  traitors.  Prielmayr,  d'Oksfort,  Zelli  purposely  mis- 
led their  followers.  Hoffman,  being  suddenly  attacked  by 
Kriechbaum,  lost  his  presence  of  mind  and  suffered  a  terri- 
ble defeat  at  Aitenbach,  where  four  thousand  peasants  fell. 
Oksfort  deserted  to  the  Austrians  and  betrayed  Braunau  into 
their  hands.  The  remainder  of  the  divided  and  betrayed 
peasantry,  under  Plinganser  and  Meindl,  deemed  themselves 
too  weak  to  keep  the  field  and  dispersed. — A  fearful  revenge 
was  taken.  Eight  hundred  peasants,  who  capitulated  in 
Cham,  were  almost  all  cut  to  pieces,  and  numbers  of  the 
prisoners  were  put  to  a  cruel  death.  All  the  ringleaders 
were  either  hanged  or  quartered,  and  a  fourfold  tax  was 
laid  upon  the  whole  country. 

The  aged  emperor,  Leopold,  had,  meanwhile,  expired, 
1705.  His  son,  Joseph  I.,  commenced  his  reign  with  the 
restoration  of  religious  liberty  to  Hungary,  which  had  more 
effect  in  quelling  Ragoczy's  insurrection  than  even  the  vic- 
tories gained  by  General  Heister.  The  implicit  confidence 
reposed  by  the  emperor  upon  Eugene  also  put  a  temporary 
stop  to  the  disorders  of  the  court  military  council,  which 
had,  up  to  this  period,  regularly  left  the  imperial  army  un- 
provided with  money,  provisions,  and  other  necessaries, 
winked  at  fraud  and  negligence  of  every  description,  and 
so  carefully  regulated  the  movements  of  the  commanders- 


AGE   OF  LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1213 

in-chief  that  success  was  often  frustrated,  or  victories  were 
sometimes  obliged  to  be  gained  against  its  express  com- 
mands. This  evil  system  was  now  put  an  end  to.  Eugene 
was  given  unlimited  power.  Joseph  also  acted  with  a  jus- 
tice, too  long  procrastinated,  although  solely  at  the  expense 
of  Bavaria,  toward  the  imperial  free  towns.  Donauworth 
was  again  declared  free;  Augsburg  and  Ulm  received  com- 
pensation for  their  losses.  The  electoral  princes  of  Bavaria 
and  Cologne  were,  as  the  dukes  of  Mantua  and  Savoy  had 
formerly  been,  also  solemnly  put  out  of  the  ban  of  the 
empire. 

Prince  Eugene  hastened  to  reconquer  Italy,  where  Ven- 
dome  had,  until  now,  retained  the  mastery  and  by  his  arro- 
gance and  violence  deeply  offended  the  duke  of  Savoy,  who 
once  more  turned  to  the  emperor.  Vendome,  however,  dis- 
armed the  whole  of  the  Savoy  troops,  and  Victor  Amadeus, 
who  was  merely  supported  by  a  small  Austrian  corps  under 
Stahrenberg,  was  unable  to  keep  the  field.  The  emperor 
was,  nevertheless,  grateful  for  his  accession,  ceded  to  him 
some  of  the  frontier  districts  of  Lombardy  and  the  duchy 
of  Mantua,  and,  as  France  had  formerly  done,  flattered  him 
with  the  royal  diadem.  Eugene  took  the  field,  but  was  met 
by  the  French  with  such  superior  forces  that  the  first  battle, 
near  Casano,  remained  undecided,  and  the  second,  near 
Govardo,  ended  in  his  defeat,  nor  was  it  until  the  recall  of 
Vendome  in  1706,  and  the  nomination  of  the  duke  of  Orleans 
as  commander-in-chief  of  the  French,  that  Eugene,  pushing 
rapidly  forward,  finally  joined  Victor  Amadeus  and  hast- 
ened, September  7,  1706,  to  prepare  a  surprise,  similar  to 
that  of  Hochstadt,  for  the  French,  who  were,  at  that  con- 
juncture, occupied  with  the  siege  of  Turin.  The  heroic  valor 
of  Prince  Leopold  of  Anhalt-Dessau,  who  commanded  eight 
thousand  Prussians,  of  General  Rehbinder  with  the  Pfalzers, 
and  of  William,  duke  of  Gotha,  decided  the  victory.  The 
French  lost  one  hundred  and  sixty-four  cannons,  and  their 
power  in  Italy  was  so  completely  annihilated,  that,  in  1707, 
they  agreed  to  a  treaty,  by  which  they  consented  to  evacuate 


1214  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

Italy,  on  condition  of  their  garrisons,  left  in  the  fortresses, 
being  allowed  free  egress.  Eugene  instantly  despatched 
General  Daun  to  the  conquest  of  Naples.  The  pope,  Clem- 
ent XL,  violently  protested  against  this  step,  and  even  pro- 
visionally excommunicated  the  whole  of  the  German  army; 
the  time  when  the  papal  anathema  struck  terror  had,  how- 
ever, long  passed  by.  The  Germans  entered  Naples,  where 
the  French  and  Spaniards  were  equally  unpopular,  in  tri- 
umph, and  the  women  and  girls  presented  each  of  the  men 
with  a  wreath  of  flowers  and  a  goblet  of  wine.  The  Bohe- 
mian, Martinitz,  became  viceroy.'  An  attempt,  made  by 
Eugene,  to  penetrate  into  the  south  of  France,  failed,  like 
its  predecessors.  He  laid  siege,  it  is  true,  to  Toulon,  but 
was  unsuccessful;  the  gallant  duke  of  Gotha  fell  in  the 
trenches,  in  1708,  and  he  was,  through  fear  of  being  cut 
off,  compelled  to  retreat.4  Italy  was,  however,  maintained 
by  the  emperor,  and  an  attack  made  by  the  papal  troops 
near  Ferrara  was  gloriously  repulsed. 

While  the  war  was  thus  energetically  prosecuted  by  Eu- 
gene on  the  other  side  of  the  Alps,  it  was  but  lamely  con- 
ducted in  Germany.  Louis  of  Baden,  instead  of  joining 
Marlborough  on  the  Moselle,  procrastinated  with  the  weak- 
ness of  age,  and  the  imperial  army  under  his  command  fell 
a  prey,  owing  to  the  ill-will  and  indolence  of  some  of  the 
Estates  of  the  empire,  to  disunion  and  want.  One  prince 
sent  his  contingent  too  late;  another,  not  at  all.  One  re- 
called his  men;  another  refused  to  allow  his  to  advance. 
One  left  the  soldiers  without  food  or  clothing;  another  pro- 

1  Neapolitan  diplomacy  had  many  a  ridiculous  feature.  According  to  ancient 
usage,  the  kings  of  Naples,  on  their  investiture,  presented  the  pope  with  a  white 
palfrey.  On  the  present  occasion,  both  pretenders,  Charles  and  Philip,  endeav- 
ored to  obtain  this  favor  from  the  pope,  who,  not  daring  to  make  the  decision, 
refused  to  accept  the  palfrey  from  either  competitor.  The  French,  hereupon, 
secretly  'ntroduced  a  palfrey  into  his  palace-yard  and  pretended  that  he  luid 
accepted  it,  although  it  had,  by  his  orders,  been  beaten  out  of  the  yard. 
Austria  made  a  solemn  protest,  1701.  Eugene's  success  put  an  end  to  these 
follies. 

8  During  the  siege  of  Peneatrelle,  he  climbed  a  tree  in  order  to  take  a  sketch 
of  the  fortress.  A  cannon-ball  carried  away  the  bough  against  which  he  leaned, 
but,  unmoved  by  the  accident,  he  calmly  finished  the  sketch  ere  he  descended. 


AGE   OF   LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1215 

ested  against  the  charge  for  billeting.  Louis  was,  conse- 
quently, unable  to  maintain  himself  on  the  left  bank  of  the 
Ehine,  and,  on  crossing  the  river,  was  instantly  followed  by 
the  French  under  Villars,  who  again  laid  the  Pfalz  waste 
and  Swabia  under  contribution.  Thungen  alone  recrossed 
the  Rhine  and  pillaged  the  country  to  their  rear.  On  the 
death  of  the  old  Margrave,  in  1707,  Prince  Eugene  exerted 
his  interest  in  favor  of  Thungen's  nomination  to  the  chief 
command,  but  the  oldest  of  the  princes  of  the  empire, 
Christian  Ernest,  Margrave  of  Anspach  and  Baireuth,  a 
man  of  known  incapacity,  was  chosen  instead.  He  allowed 
himself  to  be  again  driven  from  the  lines  of  Schollhofen,  and 
ten  thousand  sacks  of  flour,  demanded  by  Villars  under  the 
threat  of  a  renewal  of  the  former  scenes  of  atrocity  practiced 
by  the  French,  to  be  carried  through  his  camp  into  that  of 
the  enemy. 

In  the  Netherlands,  Marlborough  gained  another  brilliant 
victory  over  the  ill-fated  Villeroi  at  Ramillies,  where  the 
French  lost  twenty  thousand  men,  killed,  wounded,  and 
prisoners,  and  eighty-eight  cannons,  in  1706.  The  Dutch, 
notwithstanding,  refused  to  take  part  in  his  projected  inva- 
sion of  France,  the  reigning  burgher  families  deeming  them- 
selves already  secure  on  that  side  and  dreading  the  expenses 
of  the  war.  Marlborough  was,  consequently,  reduced  to  a 
state  of  inactivity,  in  1707,  and  occupied  himself  with 
carrying  on  negotiations  of  an  important  character.  Charles 
XII.  was,  at  that  conjuncture,  at  Altranstadt.  The  preven- 
tion of  a  dangerous  alliance  between  Sweden  and  France, 
and  the  acquisition  of  the  aid  of  the  powers  of  Northern 
Germany  in  the  war  against  the  latter  country,  were  in- 
trusted to  Marlborough,  who  fulfilled  his  mission  with  his 
habitual  success,  and  Charles  XII.  was  persuaded  once  more 
to  evacuate  Germany.  Frederick  I.  of  Prussia  was  gained 
by  Marlborough's  mingling  with  his  servants  as  he  sat  at 
table  and  offering  him  the  napkin,  and  George  of  Hanover 
by  being  nominated  generalissimo  of  the  imperial  forces  in 
the  place  of  Christian   Ernest  of   Baireuth,  who    had   laid 


1216  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

down  the  command.  The  new  generalissimo  made  his  ap- 
pearance with  a  brilliant  suite,  gave  balls  and  wasted  enor- 
mous sums  in  useless  festivities,  complaining  meanwhile  that 
the  other  Estates  of  the  empire  contributed  nothing  toward 
the  maintenance  of  the  army.  Matters  went  on  in  the  old 
routine.  The  imperial  commander,  Mercy,  gained  a  victory 
by  surprise,  during  a  thick  fog,  over  the  French  under  Vil- 
lars,  in  1708,  notwithstanding  which,  George  remained  with 
the  main  body  in  a  complete  state  of  inactivity. 

A  junction  again  taking  place  between  Eugene  and  Marl- 
borough, and  Ouverkerk,  the  Dutch  general,  being  also 
drawn  into  their  interests,  the  war  reassumed  a  more  serious 
aspect.  Both  sides  assembled  their  forces  for  a  decisive  en- 
gagement, which  took  place  at  Oudenarde,  where,  owing  to 
the  good  understanding  between  Eugene  and  Marlborough, 
a  complete  victory  was  gained  over  Vendome. '  Both  sides 
again  assembled  their  forces,  and,  in  the  ensuing  year,  a 
still  bloodier  engagement,  the  most  important  fought  during 
this  war,  took  place  at  Malplaquet,  where  Eugene  and  Marl- 
borough were  again  victorious  over  Vi liars.  The  Prussians, 
who  fought  "like  devils"  under  Dessau,  decided  the  day, 
which  was,  on  the  side  of  the  French,  merely  disputed  by 
the  Swiss.3  In  this  battle,  the  killed  and  wounded  amounted 
to  forty-five  thousand.  George  still  effected  nothing  on  the 
Upper  Khine,  although  Mercy  allowed  himself  to  be  sur- 
prised and  defeated  at  Rumersheim.  George  resigned  the 
command  in  the  ensuing  year,  1709. 

France,  exhausted3  by  continual  reverses,  now  sued  for 
peace  and  even  evinced  an  inclination  to  abandon  Spain,  but 
the  German  cabinets,   rendered  insolent  by  success,  impo- 

1  An  attempt  was  at  this  time  made  to  remove  Eugene  by  means  of  a 
poisoned  letter,  sent  to  him  either  by  the  French  or  by  the  Jesuits. 

2  Several  of  the  Swiss  regiments  lost  all  their  officers.  This  battle  took  place 
on  the  11th  of  September,  the  day  on  which,  in  1697,  Eugene  had  beaten  the 
Turks  at  Zeuta,  and,  in  1701,  the  French  at  Chiari. 

3  Germany  also,  and  particularly  the  Rhenish  provinces.  The  general 
misery  occasioned  immense  migrations  of  Protestants  from  the  Upper  Rhine  to 
England  and  the  English  colonies.  They  excited  little  attention  during  the 
oommotions  of  the  times. 


AGE   OF   LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1217 

litically  insisting  upon  the  expulsion  of  Philip  of  Spain  by 
his  uncle,  Louis  XIV.,  the  negotiations  were  broken  oft", 
and,  on  the  sudden  death  of  the  emperor,  Joseph,  in  1710, 
affairs  assumed  a  totally  different  aspect. 

CCXXXI.    Charles  the  Sixth 

Charles,  Joseph  the  First's  younger  brother,  had,  in 
1704,  been  sent  into  Spain  for  the  purpose  of  setting  up  his 
claim  as  the  rightful  heir  of  the  house  of  Habsburg  in  oppo- 
sition to  that  of  the  usurper  Philip.  It  had  been  decided 
that  Spain  should,  under  Charles,  remain  separate  from 
Austria  under  Joseph,  the  union  of  so  many  crowns  on  one 
head,  as  formerly  on  that  of  Charles  V.,  being  viewed  with 
jealousy  by  the  English,  the  Dutch,  and  the  empire.  Charles 
had,  like  his  brother,  been  surrounded  from  his  birth  with 
the  stiff  ceremonial  of  the  old  Spanish  court  and  with  a  gor- 
geous magnificence  that  flimsily  veiled  the  absence  of  gen- 
uine grandeur.  Charles,  like  Joseph  during  the  Landau 
campaign,  was  accompanied  in  his  journey  to  Spain  by  a 
suite  of  the  most  useless  description,  such  as  butlers,  clerks 
of  the  kitchen,  plate-cleaners,  etc.  He  travelled  through 
Holland  to  England,  where  he  was  conducted  through  rows 
of  beautiful  girls  to  Queen  Anne's  bedchamber,  where  she 
presented  to  him  the  most  beautiful  of  her  ladies-in-waiting, 
each  of  whom  he  honored  with  a  salute.  He  was  at  that 
time  unmarried,  but  shortly  afterward  Elisabeth1  of  Wolfen- 
buttel  was  sent  to  him  as  a  bride.  From  England  he  went 
to  Lisbon,  Portugal  supporting  the  house  of  Habsburg 
through  dread  of  the  united  power  of  France  and  Spain. 
An  army,  composed  of  Dutch  and  English,  was  also  as- 
sembled at  Lisbon  for  the  purpose  of  enforcing  Charles's 
claims,  and  Prince  George  of  Darmstadt,  who  had  for  some 


1  A  Lutheran  princess.  Elisabeth  was  well  received  at  Vienna,  but,  in 
Brunswick,  the  superintendent,  Nitsch,  said  from  the  pulpit,  "One  princess 
have  we  sacriticed  to  Popery,  a  second  to  Paganism  (a  Russian  prince),  and, 
were  the  devil  to  como  to-morrow,  we  should  give  him  a  third." 


1218  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

time  resided  in  Spain,  would  have  been  its  well- chosen  com- 
mander, had  not  his  nomination  been  opposed  by  English 
jealousy.  He  it  was  who,  acquainted  with  the  negligent 
manner  in  which  Gibraltar,  otherwise  impregnable,  was 
guarded,  and  seconded  by  the  united  fleets  of  England  and 
Holland  under  Book,  took  that  fortress,  but  was  compelled 
to  endure  the  shame  of  beholding  the  British  flag,  instead 
of  that  of  Charles,  planted  on  the  summit  of  the  rock.  A 
fresh  troop  of  English  auxiliaries,  under  Lord  Peterborough, 
placed  Charles,  (1704),  completely  under  the  guardianship  of 
England.  Barcelona,  where  Prince  George  had  some  old 
connections,  and  whence  it  was  hoped  to  raise  the  whole  of 
Catalonia  against  Philip,  was  besieged  from  the  sea;  the 
first  assault,  led  by  George,  was,  however,  unsupported, 
from  a  motive  of  jealousy,  by  Lord  Peterborough,  and  the 
life  of  the  gallant  prince  was  sacrificed.  The  town  fell, 
eventually,  into  the  hands  of  the  English,  and  Charles  fig- 
ured there  as  a  phantom  monarch;  but,  anxious  to  conceal 
his  utter  dependence  upon  Lord  Peterborough,  he  had  the 
folly  ever  to  oppose  his  wisest  and  most  necessary  measures. 
The  French,  taken  by  surprise,  were  repulsed  on  every  side, 
and  the  king,  Philip,  a  mere  puppet  of  state,  fled  from  Ma- 
drid.1 Charles  refused  to  enter  Madrid  on  account  of  the 
want  of  a  state-carriage,  and,  by  his  folly,  delayed  the  per- 
formance of  a  ceremony  which  would  have  made  the  deepest 
impression  upon  the  Spaniards,  and  the  junction  of  the  troops 
concentrated  at  Lisbon  and  Barcelona.  The  French  again 
took  breath;  Marshal  Berwik  was  victorious  at  Almanza 
in  1707,  and  Charles  was  speedily  shut  up  in  Barcelona. 

It  was  not  until  1710  that  the  allies  again  assembled  their 
forces,  the  Germans  under  the  gallant  Count  von  Stahren- 
berg,  the  English  under  Stanhope,  and  reopened  the  cam- 
paign. They  gained  a  signal  victory  at  Saragossa;  Philip 
was  a  second  time  put  to  flight,  and  King  Charles  at  length 
entered  Madrid,  where  the  people,  jealous  of  his  dependence 

1  The  Spanish  crown  diamonds  (an  incredible  number)  were,  on  this  occasion, 
sent  to  Paris,  and  wero  seized  by  Louis  in  payment  for  the  aid  granted  by  him. 


AGE   OF   LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1219 

upon  the  English  heretics  received  him  with  ominous  silence. 
The  pope  and  the  Jesuits  secretly  worked  against  him.  The 
moment  when  he  would  have  been  welcomed  with  open  arms 
had  been  irretrievably  neglected.  France  sent  reinforce- 
ments and  her  best  general,  Vendome.  At  this  critical  mo- 
ment, Stanhope  separated  from  the  Germans  and  allowed 
himself  and  the  whole  of  his  army  to  be  made  prisoners  at 
Brihuega.  Stahrenberg,  for  whom  Vendome  had  prepared 
a  similar  fate,  kept  the  enemy,  greatly  his  superior  in  num- 
ber, in  check  at  Villaviciosa;  Charles  was,  nevertheless, 
once  more  limited  to  Barcelona,  and  the  death  of  his  brother 
recalling  him  to  Germany,  he  returned  thither  in  1711,  and 
received  the  imperial  crown  at  Frankfort.  His  consort, 
Elisabeth,  and  Stahrenberg  remained  for  two  years  longer 
at  Barcelona,  but  were  finally  compelled  to  abandon  that 
town,  and  unhappy  Catalonia  fell  a  prey  to  the  cruel  ven- 
geance of  Philip's  adherents. 

Charles  was  the  only  remaining  prince  of  the  house  of 
Habsburg,  his  brother,  Joseph,  having  died  without  issue. 
He  united  all  the  crowns  of  Habsburg  on  his  head,  and  the 
hope  of  placing  that  of  Spain,  independent  of  the  German 
hereditary  provinces,  on  the  head  of  a  younger  branch  of 
that  family,  was,  consequently,  frustrated.  This  circum- 
stance entirely  changed  the  aspect  of  affairs.  England,  who 
was  imitated  by  the  allies  of  lesser  importance,  deemed  Ger- 
many and  Spain  more  dangerous  when  united  under  one 
head  than  France  and  Spain  under  two,  and  unexpectedly 
declared  in  Philip's  favor.  Torrents  of  blood  were  again 
fruitlessly  shed,  and  France,  aided  by  all  the  other  European 
powers,  once  more  grasped  her  prey. 

In  England,  the  popular  rights  of  the  Anglo-Saxons  had 
been  forcibly  suppressed  by  the  Gallo-Norman  feudal  aris- 
tocracy. Since  the  Reformation,  the  popular  element  had, 
however,  again  risen,  a  reaction  had  taken  place,  and,  in  the 
middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  had  produced  a  great 
revolution,  which  cost  Charles  I.  his  head,  a  deed  of  blood 
which  raised  enmity  and  engendered  suspicion  between  his 


1220  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

descendants,  the  Stuarts,  and  the  people.  The  Stuarts  were 
expelled,  and  William  of  Orange  was  called  to  the  throne. 
Among  those  who,  in  the  parliament  and  in  the  ministry, 
contended  for  the  control  of  the  state,  two  parties  had  formed, 
the  Tories  or  ancient  Norman  feudal  aristocracy,  who,  al- 
though upholding  their  aristocratic  privileges,  were  devoted 
to  the  monarchy,  of  which  they  made  use  for  the  suppression 
of  popular  liberty;  and  the  Whigs,  or  Anglo-Saxon  freemen, 
who,  enriched  by  trade,  proud  of  their  martial  deeds,  obsti- 
nately defended  their  ancient  rights,  were  ever  on  the  watch 
for  the  legal  acquisition  of  fresh  ones,  and  were  no  less  de- 
voted to  the  monarchy,  by  means  of  which,  in  their  turn, 
they  sought  to  overthrow  the  Tories.  The  Tories  had  natu- 
rally befriended  the  Stuarts;  William,  and,  after  him,  Anne, 
were,  consequently,  supported  by  the  Whigs.  Dependence 
on  a  popular  faction  was,  however,  in  this,  as  it  has  been  in 
all  ages,  a  royal  bugbear,  and  the  Tories  merely  awaited  a 
fitting  opportunity  to  eject  their  opponents  from  tbe  queen's 
privy  council. 

This  opportunity  presented  itself  on  the  death  of  the  em- 
peror Joseph.  The  Tories,  under  pretext  of  the  dangerous 
ascendency  of  Germany  and  Spain  when  united  under  one 
head,  ranged  themselves  on  the  side  of  France,  who  rewarded 
their  neutrality  with  commercial  advantages  that  flattered 
the  material  interests  of  the  people  and  reduced  the  Whig 
opposition  to  silence.  They  were,  moreover,  seconded  by  a 
court  intrigue.  The  Duchess  of  Marlborough,  rendered  in- 
solent by  the  fame  and  wealth  of  her  husband,  whose  noble 
qualities  were  obscured  by  excessive  covetousness, '  wounded 
the  queen's  vanity  by  refusing  to  give  her  a  handsome  pair 
of  gloves,  to  which  she  had  taken  a  fancy,  and  by  other  acts 
of  impoliteness;  she  was,  in  consequence,  dismissed,  and  had 
the  barefaced  impudence  suddenly  to  draw  the  whole  of  the 

1  Marlborough  possessed  great  financial  as  well  as  military  talent.  In  unison 
with  the  Jew,  Medina,  for  instance,  he  set  up  stock-jobbing  or  commercial  trans- 
actions with  government  paper,  which  afterward  became  general  throughout  Bu- 
rope;  he,  moreover,  defrauded  the  public  treasury  by  lowering  the  pay  of  his 
troops,  etc. 


AGE   OF   LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1221 

emormous  sums  she  had  placed  in  the  Bank  of  England,  in 
order  to  produce  a  scarcity  of  gold,  which,  however,  simply 
caused  her  husband,  notwithstanding  the  laurels  he  had 
gained,  to  be  prosecuted  on  a  charge  of  embezzlement.  His 
friends  shared  his  fall;  the  Whigs  lost  office  and  were  suc- 
ceeded by  a  Tory  government. 

Prince  Eugene  hastened  to  London,  but  his  friend  Marl- 
borough was  already  undergoing  his  trial,  and,  although 
Queen  Anne  gave  him  a  polite  reception  and  presented  him 
with  a  diamond- hilted  sword,  he  was  refused  a  second  inter- 
view, and  his  supplications  in  Marlborough's  favor  proved 
ineffectual.  The  people  gave  him  an  enthusiastic  welcome, 
and  such  was  the  popular  rage  against  the  Tories,  that,  in 
1712,  one  of  his  nephews  was  killed  in  a  street  fight.  The 
Earl  of  Ormond  replaced  Marlborough  as  commander-in- 
chief  of  the  British  troops  in  the  Netherlands,  but,  no  sooner 
was  battle  offered,  than  he  retreated  under  pretext  of  obey- 
ing secret  orders.  The  Dutch  under  Albemarle,  in  conse- 
quence of  this  faithless  desertion,  suffered  a  defeat,  and 
Eugene  found  himself  compelled  to  retire  from  his  position 
at  Quesnoy. ' 

The  Tories,  after  playing  this  shameful  part,  threw  off  the 
mask  and  concluded  a  private  treaty,  the  peace  of  Utrecht, 
in  1713,  with  France,  the  stipulations  of  which  were,  the 
possession  of  Gibraltar,  the  key  to  the  Mediterranean,  of 
Minorca  and  St.  Christopher,  the  demolition  of  the  fortress 
of  Dunkirk,  ever  an  eyesore  to  the  English,  and  free  trade 
with  all  the  Spanish  colonies,  in  return  for  which  they  recog- 
nized Philip  as  king  of  Spain.     The  Dutch  also  endeavored 


1  The  Grisons  afforded  a  striking  example  of  the  mode  in  which  French  influ- 
ence gained  ground.  Thomas  Massner,  a  councillor  of  Coire,  whose  son  h;id 
been  carried  off  as  a  hostage  by  the  French  in  the  vicinity  of  Geneva,  in  retalia- 
tion, seized  the  person  of  the  grand-prior  of  Vendome,  who  was  then  on  his  way 
through  Switzerland,  in  1710.  His  just  demand  for  an  exchange  of  prisoners 
was  disregarded,  and,  in  1712,  he  was  forced  by  his  own  countrymen,  through 
dread  of  France,  to  deliver  up  the  grand-prior;  nay,  they  accused  him  of  foment- 
ing disturbances,  compelled  him  to  flee  the  country,  quartered  him  in  effigy,  and 
allowed  him  to  die  in  misery,  while  his  son  was  detained  a  prisoner  in  Franco. 
The  family  of  Salis  headed  the  French  faction  in  the  Grisons. 


1222  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

to  make  peace  by  a  speedy  accession  to  the  articles  under 
negotiation,  but  were,  nevertheless,  compelled  to  purchase  it 
by  a  shameful  humiliation.  The  coachman  of  the  Dutch 
plenipotentiary,  Count  von  Eechtern,  having  bestowed  a 
box  on  the  ear  on  an  insolent  French  lackey,  the  ambassa- 
dors of  the  states-general  were  forced  to  apologize  in  person. 

The  German  empire,  although  abandoned  by  England 
and  Holland,  might  still  have  compelled  France  to  listen  to 
reason  had  not  her  polyarchical  government  put  every  strong 
and  combined  movement  out  of  the  question.  Prince  Eugene 
vainly  depictured  the  power  of  unity  and  conjured  the  Ger- 
man Estates  to  rise  en  masse.  He  thundered  at  Mayence — 
to  deaf  ears.  The  emperor's  exhortations  to  the  imperial 
diet  were  equally  futile:  "His  Majesty  doubts  not  but  that 
every  true  patriot  will  remember  that  not  exclusively  the 
country  and  the  people,  but,  in  reality,  the  grandeur  and 
liberty  of  his  fatherland,  consequently,  the  eternal  loss  of  bis 
honor  and  rights  and  his  unresisting  submission  to  foreign 
insolence,  are  at  stake."  The  imperial  Estates  remained 
unmoved  and  tardily  contributed  the  miserable  sum  of  two 
hundred  thousand  dollars  toward  the  maintenance  of  the 
imperial  army,  while  Villars  continued  to  collect  millions  on 
the  Rhine  and  in  Swabia.  Van  der  Harsch  alone  distin- 
guished himself  by  the  gallant  defence  of  Freiburg  in  the 
Breisgau. 

Eugene  found  himself  compelled  to  enter  into  negotiation 
with  Villars.  The  French,  however,  were  so  insolent  in 
their  demands  that  Eugene,  acting  on  his  own  responsibility, 
quitted  Kastadt,  where  the  congress  was  being  held,  upon 
which  the  aged  despot  at  Paris,  fearing  lest  rage  might  at 
length  rouse  Germany  from  her  torpor,  yielded;  Eugene  re- 
turned and  peace  was  concluded  in  the  neighboring  town  of 
Baden  in  1714.  The  treaty  of  Utrecht  was  recognized; 
Philip  remained  in  possession  of  Spain,  England  in  that  of 
Gibraltar,  etc.  The  emperor,  Charles  VI.,  on  the  other 
hand,  retained  all  the  Spanish  possessions  in  Italy,  Naples, 
Milan,  Sardinia,  besides  the  Netherlands  and  the  fortresses 


AGE   OF   LOUIS    THE    FOURTEENTH  1223 

of  Kehl,  Freiburg,  and  Breisach,  and  the  territory  hitherto 
possessed  by  the  French  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Rhine,  for 
which  Frpnce  was  indemnified  by  the  cession  of  Landau. 
The  island  of  Sardinia  was,  in  the  ensuing  year,  given  by 
Austria  in  exchange  for  Sicily  to  the  duke  of  Savoy,  who 
took  the  titie  of  King  of  Sardinia.  The  emperor,  as  sover- 
eign of  the  Netherlands,  now  concluded  a  treaty  with  Hol- 
land, according  to  which  the  fortresses  on  the  French  fron- 
tier were  to  be  garrisoned  and  defended  by  both  Austrians 
and  Dutch.  Prussia  came  into  possession  of  Neufchatel,  as 
nearest  of  kin  to  Maria  of  Nemours,  its  former  mistress,  who 
was  allied  by  blood  to  that  royal  house. 

This  peace  was  partially  concluded  by  Eugene  for  the 
emperor,  independent  of  the  empire.  The  lesser  powers, 
nevertheless,  acceded  to  it,  France  brutally  declaring  her  in- 
tention to  carry  on  the  war  against  all  recusants.  The  elector 
of  the  Pfalz,  to  whom  the  possession  of  the  Upper  Pfalz  had 
been  already  assured,  was  frustrated  in  his  expectations,  the 
traitors  of  Bavaria  and  Cologne  regaining  their  possessions 
and  being  released  from  the  ban.1  Marlborough,  conse- 
quently, lost  Mindelheim;  he  was,  however,  restored  to  favor 
in  England.  Prince  Eugene  merely  regarded  the  peace  as  a 
necessary  evil,  to  which  he  unwillingly  yielded.  He  clearly 
foresaw  that,  instead  of  bringing  security  to  Germany,  it 
would  lead  to  fresh  attacks  and  losses.  "We  somewhat  re- 
semble," he  wrote  at  that  period,  "a  fat  cow,  which  is  only 
made  use  of  so  long  as  she  has  a  drop  of  superfluous  milk. 
The  word  'peace'  has  an  agreeable  sound,  but  only  differs 

1  The  order  of  the  golden  fleece  was  even  bestowed  by  the  emperor  upon 
Charles  Albert,  the  son  of  Maximilian  Emanuel  of  Bavaria.  In  the  curious  folio, 
"Fortitudo  leonina  Max.  Emanuelis, "  published,  at  that  period,  by  the  Jesuits, 
the  scene  is  allegorically  represented.  The  imperial  eagle  hangs  his  head  and 
looks  down  with  lamentable  condescension  on  the  Bavarian  lion,  who  regards 
him  with  insolent  contempt.  Among  the  engravings,  with  which  this  work 
abounds,  there  is  one  in  which  the  genius  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  is  represented 
with  the  I.  H.  S.  on  his  breast,  offering  his  humble  thanks  to  the  statue  of  Max. 
Emanuel  and  pointing  to  a  large  donation-plate  containing  twelve  magnificent 
Jesuit  houses,  which  the  elector  had  built  for  tlieni  at  the  expense  of  the  people. 
The  elector  himself,  attired  in  the  imperial  robes  of  Rome,  sits  on  horseback  with 
an  enormous  allonge  peruke  on  his  head.     His  countenance  is  that  of  a  satyr. 


1224  THE   HISTORY  OF  GERMANY 

from  'war'  as  the  present  does  from  the  future.  He  whose 
vocation  it  is,  after  war,  to  collect  the  chips,  alone  sees  the 
heaps  of  wood  that  have  been  fruitlessly  cut.  The  best  peace 
with  France  is  a  mute  war.  France  will  seize  the  first  op- 
portunity to  rend  a  fresh  piece  from  the  empire.  When 
the  Netherlands  shall  have  been  reduced  to  submission,  the 
.Rhine  will  be  made  the  frontier  and  the  foundation  of  a 
fresh  peace.  The  abbess  of  Buchau  wished  me  joy  of  the 
blessed  peace.  I  am,  on  all  sides,  persecuted  with  congratu- 
lations of  this  sort.  Amid  all  my  misfortunes  it  is  often 
difficult  to  refrain  from  laughter." 

In  the  following  year,  1715,  Louis  XIV.,  the  vain,  li- 
centious despot,  whose  tyranny  over  Germany  covered  her 
with  far  deeper  shame  than  her  submission  to  the  genius 
of  Napoleon,  expired.  Anne,  queen  of  England,  also  died, 
without  issue,  and  was  succeeded  by  the  next  heir,  George, 
elector  of  Hanover,  whose  mother  was  the  daughter  of  Fred- 
erick, king  of  Bohemia,  and  of  Elisabeth,  the  daughter  of 
James  I.  of  England.  George  favored  the  Whigs.  Peace 
had,  however,  been  unalterably  concluded  with  France. 

Tranquillity  had  scarcely  been  restored  to  the  empire 
than  she  was  again  attacked  by  the  Turks,  and  Prince  Eu- 
gene once  more  took  the  field.  Supported  by  Stahrenberg 
and  Charles  Alexander  of  Wurtemberg,'  he  defeated  them, 
in  1716,  in  a  bloody  engagement  near  Peterwardein,  where 


1  This  prince  turned  Catholic  when  in  the  emperor's  service.  On  one  occa- 
sion, when  at  Venice,  the  haughty  nobles  boasting,  in  his  hearing,  of  their  su- 
perior state  of  civilization,  and  ridiculing  the  Germans  as  barbarians,  he  invited 
them  to  a  banquet  on  the  evening  fixed  by  him  for  his  departure,  and  gave  them 
the  following  theatrical  entertainment.  It  was  night  time;  a  single  lamp  glim- 
mered in  the  street,  where  Cicero's  ghost  was  seen  wandering  up  and  down.  A 
German  traveller  entered,  and,  finding  all  the  doors  closed,  drew  out  his  watch 
to  see  the  hour,  then  a  printed  book,  with  which  he  amused  himself  for  some 
time,  and  at  length,  in  his  impatience,  fired  off  a  pistol  in  order  to  wake  the 
sleeping  Italians.  Cicero's  ghost  now  advanced,  demanded  an  explanation  of 
the  watch,  the  printed  book,  and  the  gunpowder,  expressed  his  astonishment 
on  finding  that  these  great  inventions  had  been  discovered  by  the  barbarians  of 
the  North,  and  inquisitively  demanded  "what  things  of  still  greater  importance 
the  Italians  had  invented,  if  barbarians  had  distinguished  themselves  so  highly?" 
Upon  which  a  Savoyard  appeared,  crying,  "Heckles!  Heckles  1"  for  sale.  The 
curtain  dropped ;  the  prince  was  already  gone. 


AGE   OF   LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1225 

the  grand  vizier  fell,  and  a  second  time  at  Belgrade,  when 
they  sued  for  peace,  which  was  concluded  at  Passarowitz, 
1718.  The  emperor  was  confirmed  in  the  possession  of  Bel- 
grade, a  part  of  Servia  and  Wallachia.  The  establishment 
of  the  Granitzers  or  military  colonies  on  the  Turkish  frontier 
was  a  fresh  proof  of  Eugene's  genius. 

Venice  still  retained  her  enmity  toward  the  emperor,  by 
whom  she  had  been  unaided  in  her  war  with  the  Turks,  dur- 
ing: which  she  had  lost  the  Morea.  In  retaliation,  she  entered 
into  a  fresh  intrigue  against  him  with  Alberoni,  the  Spanish 
minister.  The  reannexation  of  Italy  to  Spain  was  again  at- 
tempted. A  Spanish  army  occupied  Sicily  in  1718.  The 
impatience  with  which  Spain  had,  since  the  death  of  Louis 
XIV.,  borne  the  tutelage  of  France,  had,  however,  inclined 
the  prince  regent,  Philip  of  Orleans,  in  favor  of  a  quadruple 
alliance  with  the  emperor,  England,  and  Holland,  by  which 
Spain  was  compelled  to  withdraw  her  troops  from  Sicily  and 
Alberoni  to  resign.  The  Venetians  were,  at  that  conjunc- 
ture, commanded  by  Count  von  Schulenburg,  the  same  who 
had  so  repeatedly  been  defeated  by  Charles  XII.  in  Poland. 
The  same  ill-success  attended  him  in  his  Venetian  command, 
during  which  he  merely  distingnished  himself  by  raising  the 
excellent  fortifications  of  Corfu,  and  those  on  the  Dalmatian 
coast,  destined,  on  the  loss  of  the  Morea,  to  protect  Venice 
against  Turkish  aggression. 

Charles  VI.  was  the  last  of  the  male  line  of  the  house  of 
Habsburg.  His  only  son  died  during  infancy,  and  his  whole 
care  was  to  secure  the  inheritance  of  all  his  crowns  to  his 
daughter,  Maria  Theresa,  whose  hand  he  had  bestowed  upon 
Francis,  the  youthful  duke  of  Lorraine,  an  object  he  hoped 
to  attain  by  means  of  the  Pragmatic  Sanction,  a  guarantee 
purchased  from  all  the  great  European  powers.  Blinded  by 
paternal  affection,  he  imagined  that  the  sovereigns  of  Eu- 
rope would  consider  a  treaty  binding,  an  example  of  naivete 
remarkable  in  the  midst  of  the  faithlessness  of  the  age.  His 
efforts  proved  vain.  After  carrying  on  a  long  and  futile  ne- 
gotiation, he  discovered  that  England,  France,  and  Spain 


1226  THE   HISTORY   OF    GERMANY 

(afterward  Saxon- Poland  also)  had  confederated,  in  1729,  at 
Seville  against  the  Pragmatic  Sanction.  Frederick  William 
I.,  who  succeeded  Frederick  I.  on  the  throne  of  Prussia, 
actuated  by  a  feeling  of  German  nationality  and  by  his 
private  antipathy  to  George,  king  of  England,  alone  re- 
mained true  to  the  emperor  and  fulfilled  the  treaty  concluded 
with  him  in  1726,  at  Wusterhausen;  the  accession  of  the 
other  powers  to  the  Sanction  was  purchased  at  an  enormous 
sacrifice.  France  was  promised  Lorraine;  Spain  was  bribed 
with  Tuscany,  Parma,  and  Placentia;  England  and  Holland 
were  gained  by  the  abolition  of  the  commercial  society  of 
Ostend,  which  dealt  a  fatal  blow  to  Dutch  trade  in  1731. 
The  grand  pensionary  of  Holland,  Slingelandt,  Heinsius's 
powerful  successor,  displayed  great  activity  in  the  conduct 
of  this  affair.  Augustus  of  Saxon-Poland  was  gained  over 
by  the  assurance  of  the  succession  of  the  crown  of  Poland  to 
his  son,  Augustus  III.  On  the  death  of  Augustus  II.,  in 
1733,  the  Poles  proceeded  to  a  fresh  election;  Stanislaus 
Lescinsky  again  set  himself  up  as  a  candidate  for  the  crown, 
and,  although  the  Polish  nobility  evinced  little  inclination 
to  favor  the  youthful  Augustus,  the  emperor,  true  to  his 
plighted  word,  exerted  his  utmost  influence  in  his  behalf. 

The  empress  Anne,  the  widow  of  the  duke  of  Courland, 
the  last  but  one  of  the  house  of  Kettler,  and  niece  to  Peter 
the  Great,  had  governed  Russia  since  1730.  That  empire 
had  long  harbored  the  most  inimical  projects  against  Po- 
land, and,  as  early  as  1710,  had  proposed  the  partition  of 
that  kingdom  to  the  emperor  and  to  Prussia.  Anne,  on  the 
present  occasion,  despatched  her  favorite,  Marshal  Munnich, 
at  the  head  of  forty  thousand  men,  to  Poland,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  securing  the  election  of  Augustus,  that  tool  of  Rus- 
sian diplomacy.  Her  deep  interest  in  this  affair  and  her 
contempt  of  Saxony  are  clearly  proved  by  the  fact  of  her 
having  expelled  Maurice  the  Strong,  marshal  of  Saxony, 
who  had  been  elected  duke  of  Courland,1  and  bestowing  the 

1  Ferdinand,    the  last  of    the  Kettler  family,    died  in   1725.      Anna,    tho 
widow  of  his  predecessor,  Frederick  William,  became  enamored  of  Maurice,  for 


AGE   OF   LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1227 

ducal  mantle  on  her  paramour,  Biron,  or,  more  properly, 
Buren,  the  grandson  of  a  hostler.  Stanislaus  fled  to  Dantzig, 
where  he  was  protected  by  the  faithful  citizens,  but  the  city 
being  bombarded  by  Munnich,  he  escaped  across  the  flooded 
country  in  a  boat,  in  order  to  save  the  city  from  utter  de- 
struction, and  Munnich's  departure  was  purchased  with  two 
million  florins  by  the  citizens.  Stanislaus  found  a  hospitable 
reception  at  the  court  of  Frederick  William  I.,  who  was  be- 
yond the  sphere  of  Kussian  influence. 

France,  Spain,  and  Sardinia  (Savoy)  now  unexpectedly 
declared  war  against  Charles  VI.  on  account  of  his  interfer- 
ence in  favor  of  Augustus.  War  was  not  declared  against 
Augustus  himself  but  against  Russia.  It  was  simply  an 
open  pretext  for  again  plundering  the  empire.  England  and 
Holland  remained  neutral.  The  Russians  sent  thirty  thou- 
sand men  to  the  aid  of  the  emperor,  who  actually  reached 
the  Rhine,  but  too  late,  peace  having  been  already  con- 
cluded. The  loss  of  the  French  marshal,  Berwik,  in  the  com- 
mencement of  the  campaign,  before  Philippsburg,  greatly 
facilitated  Eugene's  endeavors  (he  was  now  worn  out  and 
past  service)  to  maintain  himself  on  the  Rhine.  In  Italy, 
Villars,  now  a  veteran  of  eighty,  gained,  but  with  immensely 
superior  forces,  a  battle  near  Parma,  in  which  Mercy,  the 
imperialist  general,  fell.  His  successor,  Kcenigsegg,  had 
the  good  fortune  to  surprise  the  enemy  on  the  Secchia  near 
Quistello,  and  to  capture  the  whole  of  his  camp  together  with 
five  hundred  and  seventy  guns.  He  was,  however,  unsuc- 
cessful in  a  subsequent  engagement  at  Guastalla,  owing  to 
the  want  of   reinforcements   and   money.     Don   Carlos  of 


whose  election  she  at  first  exerted  her  utmost  influence.  It  so  happened,  how- 
ever, that  Maurice  had,  at  that  time,  a  liaison  with  Adrienne  le  Couvreux,  the 
beautiful  Parisian  actress,  who  had  given  him  the  whole  of  her  jewels  and  fort- 
une in  order  to  furnish  him  with  the  means  of  forwarding  his  interest  in  Cour- 
land;  he,  moreover,  seduced  ono  of  Anna's  ladies-in-waiting,  which  so  greatly 
enraged  her  tnat  her  love  changed  to  hate,  and  Maurice  was  compelled  to  flee 
from  Courland.  He  went  to  Paris,  where  his  faithful  and  beautiful  Adrienne, 
the  darling  of  the  Parisians,  was  poisoned  by  a  duchess,  who  had  also  become 
enamored  of'her  handsome«lover.  See  Espagnac's  Life  of  Maurice  and  Foster's 
Augustus  II. 


1228  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

Spain  also  went,  in  1734,  to  Sicily,  and  took  possession  of 
the  whole  of  the  kingdom  of  Naples. 

These  circumstances  were,  as  if  by  miracle,  not  turned  to 
advantage  by  France,  which  would  probably  have  been  the 
case  had  not  Louis  XV.  preferred  mistresses  and  barbers  to 
military  achievements.  A  truce  was  concluded,  and  the 
former  stipulations  made  by  the  emperor  were  accepted. 
Don  Carlos  retained  possession  of  Naples;  Tuscany  and 
Parma  fell  to  Lorraine,  which  was  bestowed  upon  Stanislaus 
Lescinsky  in  1736,  on  whose  death  it  was  to  revert  to 
France.  Stanislaus  was  named  the  benefactor  of  Lorraine; 
he  was  a  kind-hearted  and  generous  man,  who  smoked  his 
pipe  and  was  the  sincere  well-wisher  of  the  people  amid 
whom  fate  had  cast  him  on  his  expulsion  from  the  throne 
of  Poland.  He  died  in  1766,  and  Lorraine  became  hencefor- 
ward French.  The  Lothringians  had  long  and  gloriously 
defended  themselves  under  their  ancient  dukes  against  the 
French.  They  had  been  shamefully  abandoned  by  the  em- 
pire, and,  without  any  blame  attaching  to  them,  been  made 
the  victims  of  family  policy.  They  deserved  a  better  fate 
than  that  of  sinking  into  the  insignificance  inseparable  from 
a  state  half  French,  half  German. 

The  Genoese  had  remained  true  to  the  emperor,  by  whom 
they  were  supported  against  the  Corsicans,  who  refused  to 
submit  to  the  republic  of  Genoa,  with  a  German  force  under 
Prince  Louis  of  Wurtemberg,'  who,  more  by  gentle  meas- 
ures than  by  violence,  restored  tranquillity  to  Corsica  in 
1732.  On  his  departure,  the  contest  was  renewed  by  a  Ger- 
man adventurer,  Theodore  von  Neuhof,  a  Westphalian  no- 
bleman, who  had  been  educated  by  the  Jesuits  at  Munster, 
whence  he  had  fled  on  account  of  a  duel  to  Holland,  and, 
after  entering  the  Spanish  service,  had  visited  Africa,  been 
taken  prisoner,  and  had  become  agent  to  the  dey  of  Algiers, 
by  whom  he  was  despatched  at  the  head  of  a  body  of  troops 
to  the  island  of  Corsica,  for  the  purpose  of  liberating  the 

1  Brother  to  Max.  Emanuel,  who  was  taken  prisoner  at  Pultowi,  tho  son  of 
Frederick  Charles,  Eberhard  Louis's  uncle  and  guardian. 


AGE   OF   LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1229 

inhabitants  from  the  Genoese  yoke.  He  rendered  himself 
extremely  popular  and  became  king  of  Corsica,  in  1736. 
But,  while  travelling  in  Europe  for  the  purpose  of  seeking 
for  a  recognition  of  his  authority  and  for  aid,  the  French 
landed  in  Corsica  and  forced  the  islanders  once  more  to  rec- 
ognize the  supremacy  of  Genoa.  Theodore  took  refuge  in 
England,  where  he  died  a  prisoner  for  debt.1 

Prince  Eugene  had,  meanwhile,  continued  to  guard  the 
frontiers  of  the  empire.     A  thorough  German,"  ever  bent 
upon  the  promotion  of  the  glory  and  welfare  of  Germany, 
he  beheld  her  downward  course  with  heartfelt  sorrow,  of 
which  his  letters  give  abundant  and  often  touching  proof. 
He  was  misunderstood  by  all  except  his  soldiery,  who,  in 
those  wretched  times,  were  by  him  inspired  with  an  enthu- 
siasm, and  who  fought  with  a  spirit  worthy  of  a  better  age. 
But  the   fine   army,   disciplined   by  him,   was   shamefully 
neglected  on  the  death  of  its  commander.     Favorites,  men 
of  undoubted  incapacity,  were  appointed  to  the  highest  mili- 
tary posts,  the  number  of  which  was  immensely  multiplied. 
There  were  no  fewer  than  nineteen  imperial  field-marshals 
and  a  still  greater  number  of  field- lieutenant-marshals,  mas- 
ters of  the  ordnance,  etc.,  all  of  whom  were  in  the  receipt  of 
large  salaries,  were  utterly  devoid  of  military  knowledge, 
and  refused  to  recognize  each  other's  authority.     The  war 
establishment  was  reckoned  from  one  hundred  and  twenty 
to  one  hundred  and  thirty  thousand  men,  but  forty  thousand 
alone  had  been  levied  and  those  were  allowed  to  starve. 
The  whole  of  the  pay  flowed  into  the  pockets  of  the  superior 
officers.     The  military  court-council  and  the  field-marshals 
played  into  each  other's  hands,  and  the  officers,  from  the 
highest  to  the  lowest,  emulated  each  other  in  dishonesty  and 
fraud.     The  emperor,  notwithstanding  these  abuses,  deemed 
it  possible,  with  an  army  of  this  description,  to  make  great 

1  On  the  accession  of  Jerome,  Napoleon's  brother,  to  the  throne  of  West- 
phalia, it  wa9  said,  "It  is  but  just  that  a  Corsican  nobleman  should  become  king 
of  Westphalia,  a  Westphalian  nobleman  having  been  king  of  Corsica." 

5  The  counts  of  Savoy  boasted  of  their  descent  from  the  ancient  Saxon  liue 
of  Wittekind. 


1230  THE   HISTORY  OF   GERMANY 

conquests  in  Turkey  capable  of  repaying  his  losses  in  the 
West.  Count  Seckendorf ,  a  Protestant  (the  prototype  of  the 
chattering  oracles  and  busy  speculators,  who  were,  at  a  later 
period,  looked  up  to  as  prodigies  in  Catholic  countries,  merely 
on  account  of  their  being  Protestants),  was  placed  at  the 
head  of  the  army,  which  was  also  accompanied  by  Francis 
of  Lorraine  as  voluntary  field-marshal.  The  Turks,  ever 
accustomed  to  make  the  attack,  were  taken  by  surpnou. 
Seckendorf,  in  1737,  took  the  important  fortress  of  Nissa; 
but  his  further  operations  were  so  clumsily  conducted,  and 
the  army  was  in  such  a  state  of  demoralization,  that  all 
speedily  went  wrong.  Money  and  provisions  became  scarce, 
then  failed  altogether;  the  soldiery  murmured;  the  jealous 
Catholic  generals  refused  obedience  to  the  Protectant  gen- 
eralissimo. General  Doxat  yielded  Nissa  without  a  blow  on 
the  approach  of  the  Turks;  an  offence  for  which  he  after- 
ward lost  his  head.  Seckendorf,  accused  by  his  enemies, 
was  recalled  and  thrown  into  prison,  and  the  emperor,  like 
Ferdinand  II.  in  Wallenstein's  case,  denied  the  commands, 
imposed  by  himself  on  his  general,  and  threw  the  whole 
blame  upon  him  alone.  Seckendorf  remained  a  prisoner 
until  the  emperor's  death. 

The  campaign  of  1738  was  opened  by  Koenigsegg,  who, 
unexpectedly  penetrating  into  the  country,  was  successful 
at  Kornia,  but  was  left  without  reinforcements  and  speedily 
recalled.  He  was  replaced  by  Wallis,  who  blindly  obeyed 
the  senseless  orders  of  the  military  court-council,  and,  taking 
up  a  most  unfavorable  position,  placed  himself  in  the  power 
of  the  Turks,  who,  commanded  by  French  officers,  among 
others  by  Bonneval,  who  had  been  raised  to  the  dignity  of 
pacha,  crushed  him  by  their  superior  numbers  at  Kruska. 
He  lost  twenty  thousand  men,  and  retreated  in  dismay,  leav- 
ing Belgrade,  whither  he  could  have  retired  in  perfect  safety, 
behind  him.  General  Schmettau  hurried  to  Vienna  and 
offered  to  defend  Belgrade,  but  exhorted  to  speedy  measures. 
The  emperor,  however,  trusted  neither  him  nor  Koenigsegg: 
in  fact,  no  one  who  discovered  energy  or  a  love  of  honor. 


AGE   OF   LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1231 

Schmettau  was  commissioned  to  bear  to  General  Succow,  an 
officer  utterly  incompetent  to  fill  the  office,  his  confirmation 
in  the  command  of  Belgrade.  Wallis  received  full  power  to 
negotiate  terms,  and  instantly  offered  to  yield  Belgrade;  a 
step  to  which  necessity  alone  could  have  induced  the  emperor 
to  accede.  Immediately  after  this  the  emperor  sent  a  second 
ambassador,  Neipperg,  who,  ignorant  of  the  negotiations 
entered  into  by  Wallis,  refused  to  sacrifice  Belgrade,  and 
was,  consequently,  treated  with  every  mark  of  indignity  by 
the  Turks,  who  spat  in  his  face,  supposing  him  to  be  a  spy. 
Bound  in  chains,  in  momentary  expectation  of  death,  Neip- 
perg also  lost  his  presence  of  mind,  offered  to  yield  Belgrade, 
and,  through  the  mediation  of  the  French  ambassador,  the 
Marquis  de  Villeneuve,  to  whom  Kussia  had  also  given  carte 
blanche  on  this  occasion,  concluded  the  scandalous  peace  of 
Belgrade,  by  which  Belgrade,  Servia,  and  Wallachia  were 
once  more  delivered  up  to  Turkey.  Succow,  notwithstand- 
ing Schmettau' s  remonstrances,  yielded  Belgrade,  in  1739, 
before  the  ratification  of  the  treaty  at  Vienna.  Wallis  and 
Neipperg  suffered  a  short  imprisonment,  but  were,  on  account 
of  their  connection  with  the  aristocracy,  at  that  period  omnip- 
otent, shortly  restored  to  favor  and  reinstated  in  their  offices. 
Schmettau  entered  the  Prussian  service. 

The  house  of  Habsburg  became  extinct  in  1749.  Charles 
conduced,  even  in  a  greater  degree  than  his  father,  to  stamp 
the  Austrians,  more  especially  the  Viennese,  with  the  char- 
acter by  which  they  are,  even  at  the  present  day,  distin- 
guished. The  Austrians  were  formerly  noted  for  their  chiv- 
alric  spirit  and  still  more  so  for  their  constitutional  liberty. 
During  the  unhappy  struggle  for  liberty  of  conscience  their 
character  became  deeply  tragical  and  parallel  in  dignity  to 
that  of  any  other  nation  ennobled  by  misfortune,  but,  dur- 
ing the  reign  of  Charles  VI.,  it  took  a  thoughtlessly  good- 
humored,  frivolous,  almost  burlesque  tone.  The  memory  of 
their  ancestors'  rights  had  faded  away,  the  horrid  butchery 
was  forgotten;  the  education  of  the  Jesuits  had,  in  the  third 
generation,  eradicated  every  serious  thought,  had  habituated 


1232  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

the  people  to  blind  obedience,  while  thej  amused  them,  like 
children,  with  spiritual  comedies,  to  which  the  great  comedy, 
acted  by  the  court,  was  a  fitting  accompaniment.  The  per- 
son of  the  monarch  was,  it  is  true,  strictly  guarded  by  Span- 
ish etiquette,  but  his  innumerable  crowd  of  attendants, 
fattening  in  idleness  and  luxury,  ere  long  infected  the  whole 
nation  with  their  license  and  love  of  gayety.  The  court  of 
Vienna  was  entirely  on  a  Spanish  footing;  the  palace,  the 
pleasure  grounds,  the  Prater,  an  imitation  of  the  Prado  at 
Madrid,  the  ceremonies,  even  the  dress,  notwithstanding  the 
ill  accordance  between  the  great  Spanish  hat  and  drooping 
feathers  and  the  short  mantle  with  the  allonge  peruke  lately 
introduced  by  the  French.  The  emperor  was  beheld  with 
distant  awe  as  a  being  superior  to  the  rest  of  mankind;  he 
was,  even  in  privacy,  surrounded  by  pomp  and  circumstance; 
his  name  could  not  be  uttered  without  a  genuflection.  He 
was  surrounded  by  a  court  consisting  of  no  fewer  than  forty 
thousand  individuals,  all  of  whom  aided  in  the  consumption 
of  the  public  revenue.  The  six  offices  filled  by  the  lord  chief 
steward,  the  lord  chief  chamberlain,  the  lord  chief  marshal 
the  lord  chief  equerry,  the  lord  chief  master  of  the  chase 
and  the  lord  chief  master  of  the  falcons,  each  of  whom  super 
intended  an  immensely  numerous  royal  household,  took  prec 
edence.  There  were,  for  instance,  two  hundred  and  twenty 
six  chamberlains.  Then  followed  twelve  offices  of  state,  the 
privy  council  (the  highest  government  office),  the  military 
council,  the  imperial  council,  three  councils  of  finance  (the 
court  of  conference,  the  exchequer,  and  board  of  revenues), 
a  chief  court  of  justice  (into  which  the  provincial  govern- 
ment of  Lower  Austria  had  been  converted),  and  five  espe- 
cial governments  for  Spain,  the  Netherlands,  Hungary, 
Transylvania,  and  Bohemia,  all  of  which  resided  at  Vi- 
enna. There  were,  besides  these,  the  embassies,  a  prodig- 
ious number,  every  count,  prelate,  baron,  and  city  of  the 
empire  having,  at  that  period,  an  agent  at  Vienna.  The 
whole  of  the  year  was  unalterably  prearranged,  every  court 
fete  predetermined.     Then  came  a  succession  of  church  fes- 


AGE   OF   LOUIS    THE    FOURTEENTH  1233 

tivals,  with  solemn  processions,  festivals  of  the  knights  of 
the  Golden  Fleece,  and  those  of  the  ladies  of  the  order  of  the 
Cross,  instituted,  in  1688,  by  Eleonora,  the  consort  of  Ferdi- 
nand III.,  etc.;  tasteless  family  fetes,  with  fireworks,  sense- 
less allegories,  and  speeches  in  an  unheard-of  bombastical 
style,  imitated  from  the  half-oriental  one  of  Spain.  The 
machinery  of  this  world  of  wonder  was  managed  by  the 
prime  minister,  Count  Sinzendorf,  an  execrable  statesman 
but — an  admirable  cook.  Half  Vienna  was  fed  from  the 
imperial  kitchens  and  cellars.  Two  casks  of  Tokay  were 
daily  reckoned  for  softening  the  bread  for  the  empress's 
parrots;  twelve  quarts  of  the  best  wine  for  the  empress's 
night- draught,  and  twelve  buckets  of  wine  for  her  daily 
bath. 

The  people  were  reduced  to  the  lowest  grade  of  servility. 
The  Lower  Austrian  Estates,  on  the  occasion  of  taking  the 
oath  of  allegiance,  thus  addressed  Charles  VI.:  "The  light 
of  heaven  is  obscured  by  your  Majesty's  inimitable  splendor. 
The  universe  is  not  spacious  enough  to  be  the  scene  of  such 
events,  when  your  most  faithful  and  obedient  Estates  reach 
the  height  of  happiness  by  casting  themselves  at  the  feet  of 
your  Majesty.  The  ancient  Golden  Age  is  iron  in  compari- 
son with  the  present  one  illumined  by  the  sun  of  our  pros- 
perity. Your  faithful  and  submissive  Estates  would,  on  this 
account,  have  erected  a  splendid  temple,  like  that  of  Au- 
gustus, consecrated  to  returning  peace  and  prosperity,  could 
anything  have  been  anywhere  discovered  that  was  not  al- 
ready possessed  by  your  imperial  Majesty."  Conlin,  in  the 
notes  to  his  Poetical  Biography  of  Charles  VI.,  gives  an  ac- 
count of  the  reception  of  the  empress  at  Linz,  which  is  equally 
entertaining.  In  Vienna,  the  numerous  sinecures  enabled 
adventurers,  the  upper  and  lower  lackeys,  to  live  a  riotous 
life,  which  affected  the  morals  of  the  people.  Eating  and 
drinking  became  an  affair  of  the  utmost  importance;  adul- 
tery and  immorality  among  the  nobility  a  mark  of  bon-ton; 
the  search  after  amusement  the  citizen's  sole  occupation. 
The  Spanish  austerity  of  the  court  had,  notwithstanding, 

Germany.     Vol.  III.— 14 


1234  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

prevented  immorality,  under  the  name  of  philosophy,  from 
supplanting  religion,  as  had  been  the  case  in  France.  Fri- 
volity was  confined  to  the  limits  of  a  jest  reconcilable  with 
the  established  piety  or  rather  bigotry,  and  thus  came  into 
vogue,  Stranitzki,  in  the  Leopoldstadt  theatre,  by  means  of 
this  tone  exciting  the  inextinguishable  laughter  of  the  popu- 
lace, and  Father  Abraham  making  use  of  it  in  his  sermons 
at  Santa  Clara. 

Vienna,  on  the  reconciliation  between  the  emperor  and 
the  pope,  was  erected  into  a  bishopric  in  1772.  The  em- 
peror, like  his  predecessors,  was  a  slave  to  the  priests  and 
expended  as  much  upon  church  festivals  as  upon  court  fetes. 
The  most  extraordinary  splendor  was  displayed  in  1729,  on 
the  canonization  of  St.  John  von  Nepomuk  by  the  pope.  The 
festival,  which  lasted  eight  days,  was  participated  in  by  the 
whole  of  the  Austrian  monarchy,  nay,  by  the  whole  of 
Catholic  Christendom.  Vienna  was  the  scene  of  unusual 
pomp;  the  interior  of  St.  Stephen's  was  hung  with  purple; 
the  courtiers  and  citizens  vied  with  each  other  in  splendor. 
Almost  the  whole  population  of  Bohemia  poured  into  Prague; 
more  than  four  hundred  processions  of  townships  bearing 
offerings,  as  to  a  pagan  sacrifice;  Altbunzlau  with  garnets 
and  rubies,  Kcenigsgratz  with  pheasants,  Chrudim  with  crys- 
tals, Czaslau  with  silver,  Kaurziern  with  evergreen  plants, 
Bechin  with  salmon,  Prachin  with  pearls  and  gold  sand,  Pil- 
sen  with  a  white  lamb,  Saaz  with  ears  of  corn,  Leitmeritz 
with  wine,  Kakonitz  with  salt,  etc.  The  whole  of  the  city 
and  its  innumerable  towers  were  splendidly  illuminated. 
An  immense  procession  marched  to  Nepomuk,  the  saint's 
birthplace,  with  numbers  of  figures  and  pictures  of  the  Vir- 
gin and  saints,  banners  and  dramatic  representations,  taken 
from  the  life  of  the  saint. ' — At  that  pious  period  lived  the 
Tyrolean  Capuchin,  Father  Gabriel  Pontifeser,  who  enjoyed 
great  repute  as  confessor  to  Maria  Anna,  queen  of  Spain, 
consort  to  Charles  II.,  the  last  of  the  Habsburg  dynasty, 


See  Schottky,  The  Carlovingian  Age. 


AGE    OF   LOUIS    THE    FOURTEENTH  1235 

but  who  refused  every  post  of  honor  and  contented  himself 
with  erecting  a  Capuchin  monastery  in  his  native  town, 
Clausen,  with  Spanish  gold.  The  queen  adorned  it  with 
valuable  pictures,  etc.,  part  of  which  were,  in  1809,  car- 
ried to  Munich.  At  that  time  also  died,  at  Cappel  in  the 
Pazuaunthal,  the  pious  pastor,  Adam  Schmid,  who  was  so 
beloved  by  the  people  that  numerous  tapers  are  still  kept 
burning  around  his  tomb  as  around  that  of  a  saint.1 

CCXXXII.    The   Courts  of   Germany 

Augustus  of  Saxony  expired  in  1733,  leaving  three 
hundred  and  fifty-two  children,  among  whom  Maurice, 
known  as  the  marshal  of  Saxony,  the  son  of  the  beautiful 
Aurora,  countess  of  Kcenigsmark,3  equalled  him  in  extraor- 
dinary physical  strength  and  surpassed  him  in  intellect,  but, 
as  a  French  general,  turned  the  talents  which,  under  other 
circumstances,  he  might  have  devoted  to  the  service  of  his 
country,  against  Germany.  Flemming,  the  powerful  min- 
ister, also  died,  leaving  sixteen  million  dollars,  of  which  he 
had  robbed  the  country,  and  half  of  which  his  widow  was 
compelled  to  relinquish.  The  most  notorious  of  the  king's 
mistresses,  Countess  Cosel,  had  drawn  from  him  twenty 
million  dollars.  Saxony  had  fallen  a  prey  to  the  most  de- 
praved of  both  sexes.  The  whole  of  these  shameful  acts  are 
recounted  in  the  "Gallant  Saxon"  of  Baron  von  Pollnitz  and 
in  the  Memoirs  of  the  Margravine  of  Baireuth.  The  de- 
scriptions of  the  fetes  given  at  Morizburg  to  the  Countess 
Aurora  von  Kcenigsmark  or  in  honor  of  foreign  princes,  his 
guests,  graphically  depicture  the  luxury  of  this  royal  de- 
bauche.  Mythological  representations  were  performed  on 
an  immense  scale,  festivals  of  Venus  in  the  pleasure-gardens, 
festivals  of  Diana  in  the  forests,  festivals  of  Neptune  on  the 

1  Beda,  Weber's  Tyrol. 

2  She  was  cold,  intriguing,  and  busied  herself,  as  her  Memoirs  show,  with 
money  matters.     She  became  provostess  of  Quedlinburg,  "for  which, 'J  us  IJffen 
bach  writes  in  his  Travels,  "her  line,  large,  majestic  figure,  but  not  her  well- 
known  character,  well  suited." 


1236  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

Elbe,  on  which  occasions  a  Venetian  Bucentaur,  frigates, 
brigantines,  gondolas,  and  sailors  dressed  in  satin  and  silk 
stockings,  were  paraded;  festivals  of  Saturn  in  the  Saxon 
mines;  besides  tournaments,  peasants'  fetes,  fairs,  masque- 
rades, and  fancy  balls,  in  which  the  army  as  well  as  the 
whole  court  sustained  a  part.  He  kept  Janissaries,  Moors, 
Heiducks, '  Swiss,  a  name  now  signifying  bodyguardsmen  or 
porters,  and  put  the  common  soldiers  and  court  menials  dur- 
ing the  celebration  of  fetes  into  such  varied  disguises,  as,  in 
a  certain  degree,  to  transform  the  whole  country  into  a  the- 
atre. In  Wackerbarth's  biography  there  is  a  description  of 
a  firework  for  which  eighteen  thousand  trunks  of  trees  were 
used,  and  of  a  gigantic  allegorical  picture  which  was  painted 
upon  six  thousand  ells  of  cloth.  One  party  of  pleasure  at 
Muhlberg  cost  six  million  dollars.  Architecture  was  ren- 
dered subservient  to  these  follies.  The  Japan  palace  alone 
contained  genuine  Chinese  porcelain  to  the  amount  of  a  mil- 
lion dollars,  besides  sumptuous  carpets  composed  of  feathers. 
At  Dresden,  a  hall  is  still  shown  completely  furnished  with 
the  ostrich  and  heron  plumes  used  at  these  fetes.  Luxury 
and  a  tasteless  love  of  splendor  were  alone  fostered  by  this 
unheard-of  extravagance,  and  it  was  merely  owing  to  a 
happy  chance  that  the  purchase  of  the  Italian  antiques  and 
pictures,  which  laid  the  foundation  to  the  magnificent  Dres- 
den Gallery,  flattered  the  pride  of  King  Augustus.  His  pri- 
vate treasury,  the  celebrated  green  vaults,  were,  like  his 
fetes,  utterly  devoid  of  taste.  There  were  to  be  seen  im- 
mense heaps  of  precious  stones,  gold  and  silver,  a  room  full 
of  pearls,  columns  of  ostriches'  eggs,  curious  works  of  art, 
clocks,  and  all  manner  of  toys,  each  of  which  cost  enormous 
sums.  One  of  these  costly  pieces,  clever  enough,  represents 
a  harlequin  cudgelling  a  peasant,  each  of  the  figures  being 
formed  out  of  a  single  pearl  of  immense  size.  This  was,  in 
point  of  fact,  the  only  relation  between  the  prince  and  the 
people.     The  cries  of  the  people  were  unheard;  of  the  pro- 

1  Attendants  in  the  Hungarian  costume. — Trans. 


AGE    OF   LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1237 

vincial  Estates  a  servile  committee  alone  acted;  and  Au- 
gustus, in  the  plenitude  of  his  condescension,  in  return  for 
the  enormous  contributions  granted  by  his  Estates,  yielded, 
after  a  parley  of  twenty-nine  years,  to  the  desire  of  his  peo- 
ple, and  published  new  reformed  regulations  for  the  diet, 
intended  to  stop  the  mouths  of  all  malcontents,  which,  with 
open  mockery,  he  reserved  to  himself  the  power,  "in  his 
paternal  love  for  his  people,  of  altering  and  improving." 

Augustus  III.,  his  son  and  successor  on  the  throne  of 
Saxony,  although  personally  more  temperate,  allowed  his 
favorite  Bruhl,  on  whom  he  bestowed  the  dignity  of  Count, 
to  continue  the  old  system  of  dissipation.  Bruhl,  who  had 
an  annual  salary  of  fifty  thousand  dollars,  without  reckon- 
ing the  immense  landed  property  bestowed  upon  him,  erected 
his  palace  in  the  vicinity  of  the  royal  residence,  and,  like  a 
major-domo  or  grand  vizier,  surpassed  his  royal  master  in 
luxury  of  every  description.  He  held  a  numerous  court,  and, 
as  he  ever  placed  his  servants  in  the  highest  and  most  lucra- 
tive offices,  the  nobility  contested  for  the  honor  of  sending 
their  sons,  as  pages,  into  his  service.  His  wardrobe  was  the 
most  magnificent  in  the  empire;  he  had  always  a  hundred 
pair  of  shoes,  and  other  articles  of  dress  in  hundreds  by  him, 
all  of  which  were  made  in  Paris.  He  had  a  cabinet  filled 
with  Parisian  perukes.  Even  the  pastry  on  his  table  was 
sent  from  Paris.  In  order  to  raise  the  sums  required  for  his 
maintenance,  he  seized  all  deposits,  even  the  money  belong- 
ing to  wards,  and,  under  the  title  of  "contributions,"  made 
great  loans  from  wealthy  individuals,  particularly  at  Leipzig, 
for  which  he  gave  bankbills,  which  speedily  fell  so  much  in 
value  as  to  be  refused  acceptance.  He  also  established  a 
general  property  tax  and  continually  alienated  crown  prop- 
erty. He  was,  moreover,  professionally  a  traitor  to  his  coun- 
try and  sold  his  master  to  the  highest  bidder.  At  that  period, 
the  petty  collateral  Saxon  line  of  Merseburg,  founded,  in 
1653,  by  Christian,  a  son  of  John  George,  became  extinct. 
The  last  duke  was  such  a  fiddle-fancier  that  he  was  always 
accompanied  by  a  carriage  filled  with  those  instruments,  and 


1238  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

so  imbecile,  that  his  wanton  consort,  on  the  birth  of  an  ille- 
gitimate child,  pacified  him  by  declaring  that  the  infant  had 
Drought  with  it  into  the  world  a  gigantic  bass-viol,  which 
she  had  ordered  to  be  made  for  him. 

The  Saxon  dukes  of  the  Ernestine  line  were  divided  into 
several  houses.  Ernest,  duke  of  Weimar,  1736,  forbade  his 
subjects  "to  reason  under  pain  of  correction."  Frederick, 
duke  of  Gotha,  gave  the  first  example  of  the  shameful 
traffic  in  men,  afterward  so  often  imitated,  by  selling,  in 
1733,  four  thousand  impressed  recruits  to  the  emperor  for 
one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  florins,  and,  in  1744,  three 
regiments  to  the  Dutch.  He  occupied  Meiningen  with  his 
troops  and  supported  the  nobles  in  their  rebellion  against 
his  cousin,  Antony  Ulric,  who  had  persuaded  the  emperor 
to  bestow  upon  his  consort,  Elisabeth  Csesar,'  a  handsome 
chambermaid,  the  rank  of  princess,  and  to  declare  his  chil- 
dren capable  of  succeeding  to  his  titles.  The  nobility  tri- 
umphed, and  the  children  were,  by  a  shameful  decree  of  the 
Estates  of  the  empire,  declared  incapable  of  succeeding  to 
their  father's  possessions;  the  hopes  of  Gotha  were,  never- 
theless, frustrated,  Antony  Ulric  instantly  contracting  a 
second  marriage  with  a  princess  of  Hesse,  who  brought 
him  a  numerous  family. 

In  Bavaria,  Maximilian  Emanuel  II.  reigned  until  1726. 
He  was  the  author  of  great  calamities.  It  was  entirely 
owing  to  his  disloyalty,  to  the  treacherous  diversion  raised 
by  him  to  the  rear  of  the  imperial  army,  that  France  was 
not  completely  beaten  in  the  commencement  of  the  war  of 
succession.  Nor  was  his  close  alliance  with  France  merely 
transient,  for,  in  the  ensuing  century,  his  became  the  ruling 
policy  of  almost  every  court  in  Western  Germany.  The 
elector,  perverted  by  Yillars  and  others  of  the  French  cour- 
tiers, solely  made  use  of  the  French  tongue,  and,  surrounded 

1  Frederick  William,  the  reigning  duke,  Antony  Ulric's  elder  brother,  disap- 
proved of  this  marriage,  and,  on  the  death  of  Elisabeth,  who,  happily  for  herself, 
died  early,  allowed  her  coffin  to  remain  unburied,  merely  sprinkled  over  with 
sand.  On  his  death,  he  was  treated  with  similar  indignity  by  his  brother,  who 
left  both  coffins  standing  side  by  side  in  this  condition  during  a  year. 


AGE    OF   LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1239 

by  female  singers  and  dancing-girls,  imitated  every  Parisian 
vice.  His  consort,  Theresa  Cunigunda,  the  daughter  of 
Sobieski,  the  noble  sovereign  of  Poland,  filled  with  disgust 
at  the  licentious  manners  of  the  court,  became,  under  the 
guidance  of  the  Jesuit,  Schmacke,  a  strict  devotee.  The 
elector,  in  order  to  escape  the  reproaches  of  his  Bavarian 
subjects,  chiefly  resided,  in  his  quality  of  stadtholder  of  the 
Netherlands,  at  Brussels,  where,  in  one  continued  maze  of 
pleasure,  he  lavished  on  his  mistresses  and  expended  in 
horses,  of  which  he  kept  twelve  hundred,  and  in  pictures, 
which  he  had  a  good  opportunity  to  collect  in  the  Nether- 
lands, such  enormous  sums,  as  to  render  the  imposition  of 
triple  taxes  necessary  in  Bavaria.  The  provincial  diet  had 
not  been  consulted  since  1699.  His  son,  Charles  Albert,  who 
reigned  until  1746,  was  equally  the  slave  of  luxury.  He  was 
passionately  fond  of  hunting,  and  kept,  besides  his  mistresses, 
an  immense  number  of  dogs.  Keyssler,  who,  in  the  course 
of  his  interesting  travels,  visited  Bavaria  in  1729,  gives  the 
following  account:  "The  electoress,  Maria  Amelia,  a  little 
and  delicate  lady,  shoots  well  at  a  mark,  and  often  wades  up 
to  her  knees  in  a  bog  while  following  the  chase.  Her  shoot- 
ing-dress is  a  green  coat  and  trousers  and  a  little  white 
peruke.  She  has  a  great  fancy  for  dogs,  which  is  plainly 
evident  at  Nymphenburg  by  the  bad  smell  of  the  red  damask 
carpets  and  beds.  The  little  English  greyhounds  are  valued 
most  highly.  The  electoress,  when  at  table,  is  surrounded 
by  a  good  number  of  them,  and  one  sits  on  either  side  of  her, 
seizing  everything  within  their  reach.  Near  her  bed  a  dog 
has  a  little  tent  with  a  cushion,  and  on  one  side  hangs  a  bust 
of  Christ  with  the  crown  of  thorns. — There  is  a  couch  for 
a  dog  close  to  the  elector's  bed,  and  there  are  couches  for 
twelve  more  in  the  fine  writing-room  adjoining."  The  elec- 
toress becoming  jealous  of  her  husband's  mistresses,  a  terri- 
ble quarrel  ensued,  in  which  he  physically  ill-treated  her. 
Sophia  von  Ingenheiin  was  his  favorite.  He  established 
the  lotteries,  so  destructive  to  the  morals  of  the  people, 
in  Bavaria. 


1240  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

The  other  Wittelsbach  branch  in  the  Pfalz  pursued  a 
similar  career.  The  elector,  Philip  William,  who  succeeded 
to  the  government  in  1685,  died  in  1690.  His  son,  John 
William,  fled,  on  account  of  the  disturbances  during  the 
war,  from  the  Upper  Ehine  to  Dusseldorf,  the  capital  of 
Juliers,  where  he  followed  in  the  steps  of  his  cousin  Maximil- 
ian at  Brussels,  kept  a  harem  and  made  a  valuable  collec- 
tion of  pictures.  On  his  death,  in  1716,  his  brother,  Charles 
Philip,  assisted  by  the  Jesuit,  Usleber,  inflicted  the  most 
terrible  cruelties  on  the  Pfalz  and  renewed,  in  1742,  the 
violent  religious  persecution,  while  indulging  in  passions  that 
disgraced  his  years,  until  death  relieved  the  afflicted  country 
from  this  monster,  and  Charles  Theodore,  of  the  line  of  Suls- 
bach,  a  sensualist  of  a  milder  nature,  succeeded  to  the  gov- 
ernment. Gustavus  Samuel,  duke  of  Pfalz-Zweibriicken, 
had,  in  1696,  during  a  visit  to  Rome,  turned  Catholic,  in 
order  to  obtain  a  divorce  from  his  wife  and  permission  to 
wed  a  daughter  of  one  of    his   servants,  named  Hoffman. 

Hesse  gained  the  county  of  Hanau  in  1736.  The  last 
count,  John  Reinhard,  died;  his  daughter,  Charlotte,  mar- 
ried Prince  Louis  of  Darmstadt;  the  county  was,  neverthe- 
less, divided  between  Darmstadt  and  Cassel.  During  the 
life  of  William,  Landgrave  of  Cassel,  his  son,  the  hereditary 
prince,  Frederick,  secretly  turned  Catholic.  His  father,  how- 
ever, frustrated  the  plans  of  the  Jesuits  by  convoking  the 
provincial  Estates,  demanding  a  guarantee  from  the  Protes- 
tant princes,  binding  the  hereditary  prince  by  a  will  whereby 
the  Catholics  were  deprived  of  all  their  hopes,  and  sepa- 
rating the  prince  from  his  sons,  who  were  brought  up  in  the 
Protestant  faith. 

License  was  carried  to  the  greatest  excess  in  Baden-Dur- 
lach,  where  the  Margrave,  Charles  William,  built  Carlsruhe 
in  the  midst  of  the  forests,  in  1715,  and,  in  imitation  of 
the  celebrated  French  deer-parks,  kept  a  hundred  and  sixty 
garden  nymphs,  who  bore  him  a  countless  number  of  chil- 
dren. The  scandal  caused  by  this  conduct  induced  him,  in 
1722,  to  dismiss  all  except  sixty  or  seventy  of  the  most  beau- 


AGE   OF   LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1241 

tiful.  He  kept  his  favorites  shut  up  in  the  celebrated  leaden 
tower,  which  still  forms  the  handle  to  the  great  double  fan, 
formed  half  by  the  streets  of  Carlsruhe,  half  by  the  alleys 
stretching  through  the  forest  contiguous  to  the  palace.  Dur- 
ing his  promenades  and  journeys  he  was  accompanied  by 
girls  disguised  as  Heiducks. 

In  Wurtemberg,  the  duke,  Everard,  left,  in  1674,  a  son, 
William  Louis,  who  dying  in  1677,  his  brother,  Frederick 
Charles,  undertook  the  guardianship  of  his  son,  Everard 
Louis,  then  in  his  first  year.'  This  regent  discovered  ex- 
treme imbecility,  and,  after  the  shameful  seizure  of  the  city 
of  Strasburg  by  Louis  XIV.,  visited  Paris  for  the  purpose 
of  paying  his  respects  to  that  monarch,  notwithstanding,  or 
rather  on  account  of  which,  the  French  king  allowed  Melac 
to  plunder  the  territory  of  Wurtemberg.  What  was  there 
to  be  apprehended  from  a  coward?  Everard  Louis,  who  at* 
tained  his  majority  in  1693,  instead  of  healing  the  wounds  of 
his  country,  extended  his  household,  gave  magnificent  fetes, 
grandes  battues,  and,  in  1702,  founded  the  order  of  St.  Hu- 
bert, the  patron  of  the  chase,  etc.  What  reason  had  he  for 
constraint,  when  the  Tubingen  theologians  carried  on  a  vio- 
lent dispute  with  the  Dillinger  Jesuits,  whether  the  Catholic 
or  the  Lutheran  faith  was  more  advantageous  for  princes, 
and  the  Tubingen  chancellor,  Pfaff,  gained  the  victory  by 
clearly  demonstrating  that  no  faith  allowed  more  latitude  to 
princes  than  the  Lutheran.  In  the  absence  of  native  nobil- 
ity, who  had,  under  Ulric,  duke  of  Wurtemberg,  abandoned 
the  country,  foreign  nobles  were  attracted  to  the  court  for 
the  purpose  of  heightening  its  splendor.  It  was  in  this  man- 
ner that  a  Mademoiselle  von  Graevenitz,  accompanied  by  her 
brother,  came  from  Mecklenburg  to  Stuttgard,  and,  ere  long, 
became  the  declared  mistress  of  the  duke.  Nay,  a  clergyman 
was  even  found,  although  the  duke  was  already  married,  to 

1  Everard's  brother's  son,  Sylvius  Nimrod,  married  a  daughter  of  the  last 
duke  of  Miinsterberg  in  1647,  of  the  house  of  Podiebrad,  iu  whose  right  he 
laid  claim  to  the  Silesian  dueh}  of  (Els,  which  the  dukes  of  Miinstorberg  had 
received,  in  1496,  from  Wladislaw,  king  of  Bohemia,  in  exchange  for  iho  de- 
mesne of  Podiebrad  iu  Bohemia. 


1242  THE   HISTORY    OF    GERMANY 

perform  the  marriage  ceremony.  This  open  bigamy  scan- 
dalized both  the  emperor  and  the  empire.  The  departure  of 
Graevenitz  was  insisted  upon,  but  was  refused  by  the  duke 
until  the  provincial  Estates  had,  by  way  of  compensation, 
voted  a  sum  of  two  hundred  thousand  florins.  But,  scarcely 
had  the  duke  received  the  money  than  Graevenitz  returned, 
apparently  married  to  a  Count  Wurben,  a  Viennese,  who 
had  lent  himself  for  a  consideration  to  this  purpose,  and 
who,  after  being  created  grand  provincial  governor  of  Wur- 
temberg,  was  sent  out  of  the  country.  His  wife,  the  grand 
provincial  governess,  remained  for  twenty  years  in  undis- 
puted possession  of  the  duke,  and  governed  the  country  in 
his  name.  Her  brother  figured  as  prime  minister,  and,  as 
she  furnished  the  court  of  Vienna  with  money  and  the  king 
of  Prussia  from  time  to  time  with- giants  for  his  guard,  she 
was  protected  by  foreign  powers.  She  was  named,  and  with 
truth,  the  destroyer  of  the  country,  for  she  sold  offices  and 
justice,  commuted  all  punishments  by  fine,  extorted  money 
by  threats,  bestowed  the  most  important  commercial  monop- 
olies on  Jews,'  mortgaged  and  sold  the  crown  lands,  etc. 
She  managed  the  duke's  treasury  and — her  own.  His  was 
ever  empty,  hers  ever  full;  she  lent  money  to  the  duke,  who 
repaid  her  in  land.  By  means  of  spies,  the  violation  of  pri- 
vate correspondence,  and  a  strict  police,  she  suppressed  the 
murmurs  of  the  people.  Osiander,  the  churchman,  alone 
had  the  courage  to  reply,  on  her  demanding  to  be  included 
in  the  prayers  of  the  church,  "Madame,  we  pray  daily,  'O 
Lord,  preserve  us  from  evil.'  "  It  was  forbidden  under  pain 
of  punishment  to  speak  ill  of  her.  The  provincial  Estates 
attempting  to  defend  themselves  from  the  enormous  exac- 
tions, the  duke  threatened   the  "individuals,"   in  case  the 


''On  one  occasion  she  seized  a  quantity  of  English  goods  for  her  wardrobe, 
»nd  the  duke  wore  some  of  the  stolen  gold  brocade  in  public.  On  another  occa- 
sion, a  person  offering  her  five  thousand  florins  for  au  apothecary's  license,  she 
took  the  money,  gave  a  receipt,  but  did  not  send  the  patent.  The  person  called 
in  order  to  freshen  her  memory.  The  countess  could  not  recall  the  circumstance, 
demanded  the  receipt  in  proof,  took  it  away  and  did  not  reappear.  The  person 
in  question  received  neither  the  money  nor  the  patent. 


AGE   OF  LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1243 

assembly  any  longer  opposed  his  demands.  During  the  fam- 
ine of  1713,  the  peasants  were  compelled  to  plant  great  part 
of  their  land  with  tobacco.  On  the  increasing  discontent  of 
the  people  and  of  the  Estates,  which  showed  itself  more  par- 
ticularly at  Stuttgard,  the  duke  quitted  that  city  and  erected 
a  new  residence,  Ludwigsburg,  in  1716,  at  an  immense  ex- 
pense. On  laying  the  foundation-stone,  he  caused  such  a 
quantity  of  bread  to  be  thrown  to  the  assembled  multitude 
that  several  people  narrowly  escaped  being  crushed  to  death. 
The  general  want  increased,  and,  in  1717,  the  first  great 
migration  of  the  people  of  Wurtemberg  to  North  America 
took  place.  The  countess  at  length  demanded  as  her  right 
as  possessor  of  the  lordship  of  Welzheim  a  seat  and  a  vote  on 
the  Franconian  bench  of  counts  of  the  empire,  which  being 
granted  in  her  stead  to  her  brother,  a  quarrel  ensued,  and 
he  took  part  with  her  enemies  against  her.  She  also  vent- 
ured to  treat  the  duke  with  extreme  insolence.  Her  beauty 
had  long  passed  away  with  her  youth,  and,  on  the  presenta- 
tion of  the  beautiful  Countess  Wittgenstein,  her  empire  com- 
pletely ended.  She  was  imprisoned  and  deprived  of  her  im- 
mense demesnes.  On  the  death  of  the  duke,  she  lost  still 
more  of  her  ill-gotten  wealth,  and  the  court  Jew,  Suss,  her 
agent,  also  privately  robbed  her. 

Everard  Louis  expired  in  1733,  leaving  no  issue,  and 
was  succeeded  by  his  Catholic  cousin,  Charles  Alexander, 
who,  although  a  distinguished  officer,  was  totally  inept  for 
government.  He  intrusted  the  helm  of  state  to  his  court 
Jew,  Suss  Oppenheimer,  who  shamelessly  robbed  the  coun- 
try. He  established  a  "gratification  court,"  where  all  the 
offices  of  state  were  sold  to  the  highest  bidder;  a  "court  of 
exchequer,"  where  justice  was  put  up  to  auction.  To  those 
who  were  unable  to  pay  he  lent  money  at  the  rate  of  a  gros 
per  florin  (the  Jew's  groschen).  He  also  kept  a  large  shop, 
from  which  he  furnished  the  court  wardrobes,  and  estab- 
lished a  lottery  for  his  private  gain.  He,  moreover,  ex- 
tended the  system  ot  monopoly  to  leather,  groceries,  coffee- 
houses, even  to  the  cleaning  ot  chimneys,  as  well  as  the 


1244  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

right  of  pre-emption,  as,  for  instance,  in  regard  to  wood; 
and,  lastly,  burdened  the  country,  even  foreigners  during 
their  residence  in  it,  with  a  heavy  protection,  income,  and 
family  tax,  in  1736.  He  also  gave  way  to  the  most  un- 
bridled license,  and  either  by  fraud  or  by  violence  disturbed 
the  peace  of  families. — The  patient  endurance  of  the  people 
and  the  example  of  the  Pfalz  inspired  the  Jesuits  with  the 
hope  of  recatholicizing  Wurtemberg  by  means  of  her  Catho- 
lic duke.  The  first  step  was  to  place  the  Catholics  on  an 
equal  footing  with  the  Protestants,  and  a  conspiracy,  in 
which  Suss  took  part,  was  entered  into  for  that  purpose. 
Troops  were  expected  from  the  bishop  of  Wurzburg.  Order8 
were  prepared  for  the  Wurtemberg  household  troops.  The 
people  were  to  be  disarmed  under  pretext  of  putting  a  stop  to 
poaching.  The  duke,  who,  it  was  probably  feared,  might, 
if  present,  oppose  severe  measures,  was  to  be  temporarily 
removed.  The  ancient  constitution  was  to  be  done  away 
with;  "The  hydra  head  of  the  people  shall  be  crushed," 
wrote  General  Remchingen,  one  of  the  chief  conspirators,  to 
Fichtel,  the  duke's  privy-councillor.  But,  during  the  night 
of  the  13th  of  March,  1737,  the  duke  suddenly  expired,  a 
few  hours  before  the  time  fixed  for  his  departure.  He  was 
long  supposed  to  have  been  assassinated,  but,  most  probably, 
died  of  apoplexy.  His  cousin,  Charles  Rudolph,  undertook 
the  government  during  the  minority  of  his  son,  Charles  Eu- 
gene, who  was  then  in  his  ninth  year.  The  Catholic  con- 
spiracy fell  to  the  ground;  Remchingen  fled;  the  Jew,  Suss, 
was  exposed  on  the  gallows'  in  an  iron  cage. 

The  first  elector  of  Hanover,  Ernest  Augustus,  who  sud- 
denly restored  the  power  of  the  divided  and  immoral  Guelphic 
house,  was  not  free  from  the  faults  of  the  age.  Although 
the  champion  of  the  honor  of  Germany,  he  was  a  slave  to 
French  fashions,  unprincipled  and  licentious,  faithless  and 

1  These  gallows  were  made  of  the  iron  which  Honauer  had  attempted  to  turn 
into  gold.  Honauer  first  adorned  them  in  1597,  then  the  Jew  Suss,  three  al- 
chemists, Montani,  Muschelcr,  and  Von  Miihlenfels,  a  Stuttgard  incendiary, 
and,  lastly,  a  thief,  who  had  attempted  to  steal  the  iron  from  the  same  gallows. 
They  wore  very  high  and  weighed  thirty-six  hundred  weight  and  twelve  pounds. 


AGE   OF  LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1245 

ungrateful  to  his  noble  consort,  Sophia,  in  whose  right  his 
son  mounted  the  throne  of  Great  Britain.  He  built  Mont- 
brilland  for  his  mistress,  Madame  von  Kielmansegge,  and 
the  Fantaisie  for  the  other,  the  Countess  Platen.  His  Ital- 
ian chapel- director,  Stephani,  controlled  the  government. 
His  neglected  consort,  Sophia,  a  woman  of  high  intelligence, 
consoled  herself  by  her  friendship  for  Leibnitz,  the  greatest 
genius  of  the  day.  George,  his  son  and  successor,  married 
a  near  relation,  Sophia  Dorothea,  the  daughter  of  the  last 
duke  of  Celle,  who,  becoming  enamored  of  a  Count  Kcenigs- 
mark,  attempted  to  fly  with  him  in  the  design  of  turning 
Catholic.  Her  plan  was  discovered  and  frustrated;  the 
count  was  beheaded  and  she  was  detained  a  prisoner  for 
life,  in  1691.  The  elector,  notwithstanding  the  severity 
with  which  he  visited  adultery  in  his  wife,  was  not  free 
from  a  similar  imputation.  He  kept  numerous  mistresses, 
among  others,  Irmengarde  Melusina  von  Schulenburg,  who 
gained  such  undisputed  sway  over  him  that  he  took  her  to 
England  on  his  accession  to  the  throne,  created  her  duchess 
of  Kendal,  and  induced  Charles  VI.  to  bestow  upon  her  the 
title  of  Eberstien  as  princess  of  the  empire.  He  mounted 
the  British  throne  in  1714,  and,  in  order  to  confirm  his 
seat,  completely  devoted  himself  to  the  interests  of  Great 
Britain.  Hanover  was  utterly  neglected  and  converted  into 
an  English  province,  a  stepping-stone  for  England  into  the 
German  empire.  The  fact  that  the  absence  of  the  prince 
afforded  no  alleviation  of  the  popular  burdens  is  character- 
istic of  the  times.  The  electoral  household,  notwithstanding 
the  unvarying  absence  of  the  elector,  remained  on  its  former 
footing  for  the  purpose  of  imposing  upon  the  multitude  and 
of  assuring  lucrative  appointments  to  the  nobility.  The  pal- 
ace bore  no  appearance  of  being  deserted;  except  the  elector 
himself,  not  a  courtier,  not  a  single  gold-laced  lackey,  was 
wanting  to  complete  the  court;  the  horses  stamped  in  the 
stalls,  nay,  the  fiction  of  the  royal  presence  was  carried  to 
such  a  degree  that  the  Hanoverians  were  cited  for  their  de- 
votion to  royalty  and  for  their  rage  for  titles.    The  courtiers, 


1246  THE   HISTORY  OF   GERMANY 

resident  in  Hanover,  assembled  every  Sunday  in  the  electoral 
palace.  In  the  hall  of  assembly  stood  an  arm-chair,  upon 
which  the  monarch's  portrait  was  placed.  Each  courtier 
on  entering  bowed  low  to  this  portrait,  and  the  whole  as- 
sembly, as  if  awe- stricken  by  the  presence  of  majesty,  con- 
versed in  low  tones  for  about  an  hour,  when  the  banquet,  a 
splendid  repast  prepared  at  the  elector's  expense,  was  an- 
nounced. The  clemency  whereby  the  fate  of  the  subjects 
of  other  states  is  sometimes  alleviated,  had,  however,  disap- 
peared with  the  monarch,  and  to  this  may  be  attributed  the 
rude  arrogance  of  the  nobility  and  the  cruelty  of  the  legis- 
lature, which,  even  up  to  the  present  time,  retained  the  use 
of  torture.  The  example  offered  by  the  people  and  parlia- 
ment of  England  might  have  been  followed,  but  the  Hano- 
verian diet  had  slumbered  since  1657,  and  merely  vegetated 
in  the  form  of  an  aristocratic  committee.  The  minister,  von 
Munchhausen,  was  the  first  who  governed,  as  far  as  the 
spirit  and  circumstances  of  the  times  allowed,  in  a  patriotic 
sense.  He  gained  great  distinction  by  founding  the  univer- 
sity of  Goettingen,  which  he  richly  endowed,  1737.  Royal 
Hanover  no  longer  condescended  to  send  her  subjects  to 
the  little  university  of  Helmstsedt  in  Wolfenbuttel. 

In  Brunswick- Wolfenbuttel,  the  aged  duke,  Antony  Ulric, 
who  gave  way  to  unbridled  license  in  his  palace  of  Salzdah- 
lum,  but  who  promoted  science  by  the  extension  of  the  cele- 
brated Wolfenbuttel  library, '  turned  Catholic  when  nearly 
eighty,  in  order  to  testify  his  delight  at  the  marriage  of  his 
grand- daughter  with  the  emperor,  Charles  VI.  His  son, 
Augustus  William,  imitated  his  luxury,  and,  guided  by  a 
certain  von  Dehn,  gave  himself  up  to  all  the  fashionable 
vices  of  the  day  and  persecuted  Munchhausen.  He  was  suc- 
ceeded by  his  brother,  Louis  Rudolph,  in  1731,  by  whom 
order  was  restored.  He  left  no  issue,  and  was  succeeded, 
in  1735,  by  Ferdinand  Albert  von  Bevern  (a  younger 
branch,  founded  by  a  brother  of  Antony  Ulric),  a  learned 

1  Better  than  by  his  wearisome  romances  and  his  expensive  Italian  opera. 


AGE    OF   LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1247 

collector  of  scientific  objects,    who  was  shortly  afterward 
succeeded  by  his  son,  Charles. 

In  Mecklenburg,  the  scandalous  government  of  Charles 
Leopold  was  succeeded  by  the  milder  one  of  his  brother, 
Christian  Louis,  in  1719. 

In  East  Friesland,  George  Albert,  the  son  of  Christian 
Everard,  continued  the  contest  with  the  Estates  and  the  city 
of  Emden,  and  created,  in  opposition  to  the  ancient  Estates 
or  malcontents,  fresh  and  obedient  ones.  Eight  was  in  this 
instance  again  unprotected  by  the  emperor  and  the  empire, 
by  whom  the  ancient  Estates  were  denounced  as  rebels. 
Emden  resisted,  several  bloody  battles  took  place,  but  at 
length  the  Danes  came  to  the  count's  assistance,  the  ancient 
Estates  were  suppressed,  and  the  property  of  the  malcontents 
was  confiscated.  Charles  Edward,  the  count's  son,  married, 
in  1727,  a  princess  of  Baireuth,  and  entered  into  an  agree- 
ment by  which,  on  his  dying  without  issue  in  1744,  East 
Friesland  was  annexed  to  Prussia. 

In  Denmark,  Frederick  IV.  married  Anna  Sophia,  the 
beautiful  daughter  of  his  chancellor,  Reventlow.  Extrava- 
gant devotion  was  brought  into  vogue  during  the  reign  of 
his  son,  Christian  VI. ,  by  his  consort,  Sophia  Magdalena,  a 
princess  of  Baireuth,  and  by  her  court  chaplain,  Blume 
(1746).  The  celebrated  minister,  Bernstorf,  commenced  a 
beneficial  reform  in  the  administration  under  his  son, 
Frederick  V. 

Holstein  had  severely  suffered  during  the  war  and  under 
the  licentious  government  of  Count  Gortz,  after  whose  execu- 
tion the  affairs  of  state  were  conducted  almost  equally  ill  by 
the  family  of  Bassewitz  in  the  name  of  the  youthful  duke. 
The  nobility  were  extremely  cruel  and  intractable.  In  1721, 
a  Ranzau  caused  his  elder  brothers  to  be  assassinated;  an- 
other, in  1722,  starved  several  of  his  serfs  to  death  in  prison. 
Both  were  merely  punished  by  a  short  imprisonment.  A 
third  member  of  this  family  had,  however,  as  early  as  1688, 
offered  a  very  contrary  example,  by  being  the  first  to  liberate 
the  serfs  on  his  estates.     A  controversy  among  the  priest- 


1248  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

hood  caused  the  citizens  of  Kiel,  in  1708,  to  rise  in  open 
insurrection.  The  Ditmarsch  peasantry  revolted  in  1740, 
on  account  of  the  abuses  to  which  the  levy  of  recruits  gave 
rise. 

Leopold  of  Dessau  was  the  only  one  among  the  fallen 
princes  of  the  house  of  Anhalt  who  earned  distinction.  He 
reformed  the  Prussian  army,  introduced  the  use  of  metal 
ramrods  and  a  rapid  movement  in  close  columns,  and  pre- 
pared Prussia  for  the  great  part  she  was  henceforward  to 
perform  on  the  theatre  of  war  in  Europe.1  He  was  ex- 
tremely rough  in  his  manners,  was  subject  to  ungovernable 
fits  of  fury,  was,  moreover,  a  drunkard,  and  tyrannized  over 
the  people  of  Dessau.  He,  nevertheless,  lived  in  great  har- 
mony with  the  beautiful  daughter  of  an  apothecary,"  who 
was  recognized  by  the  emperor. 

A  collateral  branch  of  the  house  of  Hohenzollern-Bran- 
denburg,  the  reigning  one  of  Prussia,  continued  to  reign  in 
the  Margraviates  of  Baireuth  and  Anspach.  Christian  Ernest 
of  Baireuth,  in  1712,  created  the  alchemist,  Krohnemann, 
prime  minister,  but  sent  him,  nevertheless,  to  the  gallows 
for  his  ill-success  in  discovering  the  secret  of  making  gold. 
His  son,  George  William,  founded  the  far-famed  Hermitage, 
where  the  hermit  passed  his  days  in  wanton  luxury.  His 
son,  Frederick,  married  the  celebrated  princess,  Frederica 
Sophia  Wilhelminaof  Prussia,  sister  to  Frederick  the  Great, 
whose  Memoirs  so  graphically  depicture  the  times.  She  has 
unhesitatingly  and  unsparingly  described  both  her  father's 
and  husband's  court  and  related  all  the  events  of  that  period: 
the  fact  that  a  princess  could  thus  speak  of  her  own  relations 
is  a  strong  proof,  were  any  wanting,  of  the  prevalence  of 
French  frivofety.     Her  husband  had,  in  1743,  founded  the 

1  He  was  the  darling  of  the  soldiery,  and  the  Dessau  march,  long  after  his 
time,  led  the  Prussians  to  victory. 

2  Anna  Louisa  Fohse,  the  apothecary's  daughter,  had  steadily  refused  to 
become  his  mistress.  He  remained,  on  his  side,  faithful  to  her  during  his  cam- 
paigns and  married  her  on  succeeding  to  the  government.  She  bore  him  ten 
children,  five  of  whom  were  sons.  Three  fell  and  the  other  two  wore  severely 
wounded  during  the  seven  years'  war. 


AGE    OF   LOUIS    THE    FOURTEENTH  1249 

university  of  Erlangen,  but  was,  notwithstanding,  a  mere 
lover  of  the  chase,  and  was  first  misled  by  her  to  spend  sums 
in  the  erection  of  palaces,  theatres,  etc.,  ill-suited  to  the 
revenue  of  his  petty  territory. 

Charles  William  Frederick  von  Anspach,  who  succeeded 
to  the  government  in  1729,  was  feared  as  a  madman  and  a 
tyrant.  He  intrusted,  the  administration  to  the  nobility, 
more  particularly  to  the  family  of  Seckendorf,  while  he 
gave  himself  up  to  the  pleasures  of  the  chase,  to  a  couple 
of  mistresses,  and  to  fits  of  rage,  which  caused  him  to  im- 
brue his  hands  in  the  blood  of  others.  He  was  for  some 
time  completely  guided  by  a  Jew,  named  Isaac  Nathan, 
who  practiced  financial  swindling,  and,  for  a  short  period, 
solely  reigned  under  the  title  of  "resident."  The  little  Mar- 
grave, wishing  to  bestow  a  great  honor  on  the  English  mon- 
arch, sent  him  the  red  order  of  the  eagle  set  in  brilliants. 
The  Jew,  Ischerlein,  who  was  on  an  understanding  with 
Nathan,  undertook  the  commission  and  falsified  the  dia- 
monds, which  was  instantly  perceived  by  King  George, 
who  accordingly  neglected  to  send  a  reply  to  the  Margrave. 
An  inquiry  took  place  and  the  imposition  was  discovered. 
The  Margrave  instantly  sent  for  the  Jew  and  for  a  heads- 
man. Ischerlein  came,  was  bound  down  to  a  chair,  but  no 
sooner  caught  sight  of  the  headsman  than,  springing  up,  he 
ran,  with  the  chair  attached  to  him,  round  the  long  table 
standing  in  the  middle  of  the  hall,  until  the  headsman,  en- 
couraged by  the  Margrave,  at  length  contrived  to  strike  off 
his  head  across  the  table.  Nor  did  the  resident  escape  the 
Margrave's  wrath;  he  was  closely  imprisoned,  deprived  of 
the  whole  of  his  ill-gotten  wealth,  and,  in  1740,  expelled 
the  country.  The  Margrave,  during  another  of  his  fits  of 
rage,  shot  the  keeper  of  his  hounds.  He  died  of  apoplexy, 
caused  by  the  fury  to  which  he  was  roused  by  the  conduct 
of  Mayer,  the  Prussian  general,  who,  at  that  period,  1757, 
chastised  the  petty  princes  of  the  empire. — These  Mar- 
graves of  Anspach  and  Baireuth  appeared  as  protectors  of 
Protestantism  in  opposition  to  the  princes  of  Hohenlohe  (Bar 


1250  THE    HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

tenstein  and  Schillingsfurst),  who,  as  Catholics,  tyrannized 
over  their  Protestant  relatives,  the  Counts  von  Hohenlohe 
((Ehringen),  attempted  to  abrogate  the  consistory  at  (Ehrin- 
gen  and  to  extirpate  Protestantism.  The  Margrave's  troops 
compelled  the  princes  to  remain  tranquil,  and,  notwithstand- 
ing the  loud  complaints  of  the  Bavarian  Jesuits,  to  make  full 
restitution. 

CCXXXIII.    The  Ecclesiastical  Courts — The  Salzburg 

Emigration 

The  archbishops  and  prince- bishops  of  the  Catholic 
church,  instead  of  being  taught  by  the  great  lesson  in- 
culcated by  the  Reformation,  emulated  the  temporal  princes 
in  luxury  and  license.  Clement  of  Cologne,  brother  to  the 
elector  of  Bavaria,  had  fixed  his  voluptuous  court  at  Bonn. 
Here  French  alone  was  spoken,  and  luxury  was  carried  to 
such  a  height  that  even  during  Lent  there  were  no  fewer 
than  twenty  dishes  on  the  archiepiscopal  table.  This  gal- 
lant churchman  had  a  hundred  and  fifty  chamberlains  and 
passed  great  part  of  his  time  at  Paris,  where  he  associated 
with  the  licentious  courtiers  and  acted  in  a  manner  that  in- 
spired even  the  French  with  astonishment.  Duclos  relates, 
"It  was  very  strange  to  see  the  elector  of  Cologne,  who  re- 
sided at  Paris,  standing  in  the  royal  presence,  the  king  sit- 
ting in  an  armchair,  and,  when  dining  with  the  Dauphin, 
sitting  among  the  courtiers  at  the  lowest  end  of  the  table. 
When  at  Valenciennes,  he  caused  his  intention  of  preaching 
on  the  first  of  April  to  be  proclaimed.  The  church  was 
thronged  on  the  given  day.  The  elector  mounted  the  pul- 
pit, gravely  bowed  to  the  assembly,  made  the  sign  of  the 
cross,  and  exclaiming,  'April  fools  all  of  ye!'  descended  amid 
the  sound  of  trumpets,  hunting-horns,  and  kettle-drums,  and 
quitted  the  church."  The  city  of  Cologne  was  completely 
ruined  under  his  government.  The  religious  persecution 
drove  all  the  industrious  manufacturers  and  traders  into  the 
neighboring  country,  and  enriched  Muhlheim,  Dusseldorf, 


AGE   OF   LOUIS    THE    FOURTEENTH  1251 

and  Elberfeld  at  the  expense  of  Cologne,  which  was  at  length 
almost  solely  inhabited  by  monks  and  beggars. 

The  bishops,  to  whom  the  venerable  episcopal  cities  and 
cathedrals  offered  a  silent  reproof,  withdrew,  for  the  more 
undisturbed  enjoyment  of  their  pleasures,  to  more  modern 
residences,  where  they  revelled  in  magnificence  and  luxury. 
Bonn,  Bruchsal,  and  Dillingen  severally  afforded  a  voluptu- 
ous retreat  to  the  archbishops  of  Cologne,  Spires,  and  Augs- 
burg. John  Philip  Francis,  bishop  of  Wurzburg,  a  scion  of 
the  noble  house  of  Schonborn,  held  an  extremely  splendid 
court.  His  palace  and  the  buildings  pertaining  to  it  were 
built  on  the  plan  of  Versailles,  and  are,  even  at  the  present 
day,  objects  of  admiration.'  He  was,  moreover,  bishop  of 
Bamberg,  where  he  held  a  separate  court,  to  which  no  less 
than  thirty  chamberlains  were  attached.  Father  Horn,  who 
ventured  to  preach  against  ecclesiastical  luxury  and  license, 
languished  for  twenty  years  chained  in  a  deep  dungeon  at 
Wurzburg,  until  1750,  when  death  released  him  from  his 
sufferings.  The  archbishop  of  Salzburg  had  twenty- three 
chamberlains  and  sixteen  courtiers,  the  chateaux  of  Mira- 
bella,  Klessheim,  and  Hellbriinn,  establishments,  completely 
on  a  temporal  footing,  with  pleasure-gardens,  basins,  foun- 
tains, grottoes  with  statues  of  naked  divinities,  nymphs  and 
satyrs,  a  menagerie,  orangery,  and  theatre.  Luxury  was 
here  hereditary  and  was  transmitted  from  one  archbishop  to 
another.  In  1699,  for  instance,  the  archbishop,  John  Ernest, 
entertained  the  consort  of  Joseph,  the  Roman  king,  with 
fetes;  among  others,  with  a  grande  battue,  in  which  bulls, 
bears,  wild  boars,  deer,  etc.,  were  driven  into  a  narrow  cir- 
cle and  torn  to  pieces  by  large  hounds,  and  with  a  ball,  on 
the  conclusion  of  which  he  presented  her  with  a  silver  table 
and  a  costly  mirror  for  her  morning  toilet. 

This  example  was  followed  by  numerous  other  bishops, 

1  One  of  his  predecessors,  Peter  Philip  von  Dornbach,  had,  in  1669,  thrown 
the  cornet,  Eckh.'ird  von  Peckern,  a  handsome  youth,  whoso  attractions  were, 
in  the  eyes  of  a  Madame  von  Polhcira,  superior  to  those  of  the  bishop,  into  prison 
and  starved  him  to  death.  See  Schramberg's  article  concerning  the  family  of 
Dornbach. 


1252  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

princely  abbots,  and  prelates  of  every  description.  Augustin, 
abbot  of  Altaich,  had  an  annual  income  of  one  hundred  thou- 
sand florins  and  expended  three  hundred  thousand.  The 
priests  of  the  Teacher  of  humility  paraded  in  gilt  carriages 
drawn  by  six  stallions,  Heiducks  standing  behind,  footmen 
running  before,  followed  by  a  train  of  gay  cavaliers,  chased 
the  wild-boar  in  their  forests  or  lounged  in  luxurious  bou- 
doirs, their  fat  fingers  gleaming  with  diamonds,  on  soft 
cushions,  their  mistresses  around,  a  dainty  banquet  before 
them.  Their  luxury  had  long  become  proverbial.  The  epis- 
copal cellars  abounded  with  the  good  things  of  this  world, 
and  men,  bound  by  a  vow  of  denial  and  poverty,  unhesitat- 
ingly named  their  store-places  the  cellar  of  God  the  Father, 
God  the  Son,  God  the  Holy  Ghost,  of  all  saints,  etc.  The 
depravity,  especially  of  the  women,  in  all  the  episcopal  de- 
mesnes and  cities  was  proverbial.  The  spiritual  fathers  took 
their  daughters  to  their  bosom  and  servility  boasted  of  the 
honor. 

The  rich  benefices,  the  offices  in  the  cathedrals  and  other 
establishments,  were,  like  all  the  higher  civil  and  military 
posts,  monopolized  by  the  nobility.  In  order  to  secure  the 
exclusion  of  the  burghers,  those  alone  who  counted  a  cer- 
tain number  of  ancestors  or  who  paid  a  considerable  sum  of 
money  could  be  admitted.  An  ill-successful  applicant  said, 
on  one  occasion,  "I  am  not  rich  enough  to  take  the  vow 
of  poverty'"  The  nobility,  habituated  from  their  birth  to 
luxury  and  license,  continued  the  same  practices  in  the 
establishments  of  the  church. 

Deep  amid  the  mountains  of  Salzburg  dwelt  a  pious  com- 
munity, which,  since  the  time  of  the  first  Reformation,  had 
secretly  studied  the  German  Bible,  and,  unaided  by  a  priest- 
hood, obeyed  the  precepts  of  a  pure  and  holy  religion.  The 
gradual  extension  of  this  community  at  length  betrayed  its 
existence  to  the  priests,  and,  in  1685,  the  first  cruel  persecu- 
tion commenced  in  the  Teiferekerthal,  and,  on  the  failure  of 
the  most  revolting  measures  for  the  conversion  of  the  wretched 
peasants  to  Popery,  they  were  expelled  their  homes  and  sent 


AGE    OF   LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1253 

to  wander  o'er  the  wide  world,  deprived  even  of  a  parent's 
joy,  their  children  being  torn  from  them  in  order  to  be  edu- 
cated by  the  Jesuits.  In  the  ensuing  year,  a  number  of 
mountaineers  with  their  preacher,  Joseph  Schaidberger, 
were  also  compelled  to  quit  their  native  country. 

The  secret  church,  however,  far  from  being  annihilated 
by  these  measures,  rapidly  increased  her  number  of  prose- 
lytes. The  purity  and  beauty  of  a  religion  free  from  the 
false  dogmas  of  a  grasping  hierarchy  offered  irresistible  at- 
tractions to  the  hardy  and  free-spirited  mountaineers;  the 
persecution,  the  license  permitted  at  the  ecclesiastical  court 
of  their  spiritual  sovereign,  the  utter  depravity  pervading 
the  whole  of  the  upper  classes,  the  church,  and  the  army, 
filled  them  with  the  deepest  disgust  and  caused  them  to 
cling  with  still  greater  tenacity  to  their  secret  persuasion. 
Divine  service  was  performed  during  the  silent  night  in  the 
depths  of  the  forest  or  in  the  hidden  recesses  of  the  moun- 
tains. They  buried  their  Bibles  in  the  forest,  and,  at  first, 
refused  to  confide  the  place  of  their  concealment  to  their 
wives  and  daughters.  By  practicing  the  external  cere- 
monies of  the  Catholic  church,  they  remained,  notwith- 
standing their  numbers,  long  undiscovered.  A  trifling  in- 
cident at  length  disclosed  the  whole.  One  of  their  number, 
shocked  at  the  profanation  of  the  Saviour's  name  by  the  use 
of  the  Catholic  salutation,  "Praised  be  Jesus  Christ,"  by 
drunkards  and  gamesters,  refused  to  reply  to  it,  and,  being 
imitated  by  the  rest  of  his  persuasion,  a  discovery  took  place. 
The  brutal  archbishop,  Leopold  Antony  von  Firmian,'  con- 
demned the  first  who  refused  to  return  this  salutation  to  be 
cruelly  beaten,  to  be  bound  up  awry  with  dislocated  limbs, 

'  Firmian  had  given  the  pope  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  for  the  Pallium. 
His  attendants  and  associates  were  chiefly  Italians,  and  he  would  follow  the 
chase  for  days  together.  The  rest  of  his  time  was  devoted  to  the  Countess  Arco 
at  the  chateau  of  Elesheim,  and  the  government  was  intrusted  to  his  chancellor, 
a  poor  Tyrolese,  named  Christian,  a  native  of  Rail,  who  Italianized  his  name  and 
termed  himself  Christian!  da  Rallo.  The  pope  bribed  him  with  fifty  thousand 
dollars  to  gain  the  archbishop  over  to  his  interests. — Pcmse,  History  0/  the  Salz 
burg  Emigration.  Part  of  the  city  of  Salzburg  had  been  buried,  shortly  before 
these  events,  in  1669,  by  the  fall  of  a  mountain. 


1254  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

to  be  exposed  during  the  depth  of  winter  to  hunger  and  cold, 
in  order  to  compel  them  to  recant.  They  remained  firm. 
The  miserable  peasants  imagined  in  their  simplicity  that  the 
diet  would  exert  itself  in  their  favor!  They  still  harbored  a 
hope  that  the  interests  of  the  great  German  nation,  of  which 
they  formed  a  part,  might  be  represented  in  the  diet!  But 
their  deputation  found  that  in  Ratisbon  affairs  dragged 
slowly  on,  and  that  while  the  lawyers  scribbled  the  bishop 
acted. .  The  Protestant  deputies,  who  had  taken  up  the  cause 
of  the  Salzburg  peasantry,  allowed  themselves  to  be  led  astray 
by  the  sophistry,  evasions,  and  impudent  assertions  of  the 
Baron  von  Zillerberg,  Firmian's  subtle  agent  at  Ratisbon. 
The  deputation  was,  on  its  return,  thrown  into  prison,  and 
the  persecution  was  carried  on  with  unrelenting  cruelty. 
Physical  torture  proving  ineffectual,  the  archbishop  tried 
the  effect  of  enormous  fines.  This  measure  proved  equally 
futile.  Enraged  at  his  ill  success,  he  at  length  sent  a  com- 
mission to  find  out  the  numbers  of  the  heretics,  and,  on  be- 
ing informed  that  they  amounted  to  twenty  thousand,  ob- 
served, "It  does  not  matter,  I  will  clear  the  country  of  the 
heretics  although  it  may  hereafter  produce  but  thorns  and 
thistles. "  The  commissioners  asked  the  people  whether  they 
were  Lutheran  or  Zwmglian.  The  simple-minded  peasants 
had  never  heard  of  either;  they  had  only  studied  the  Bible, 
and  replied,  "We  are  evangelical."  They  were  now  ir- 
remediably lost.  However,  putting  their  trust  in  God, 
they  formed  a  great  confederacy  at  Schwarzach,  August 
5,  1731,  and  swore  to  lay  down  their  lives  rather  than  deny 
their  faith.  Each  man,  on  taking  this  oath,  stuck  his  finger 
into  a  saltcellar,  whence  the  confederacy  received  the  appel- 
lation of  the  Salzbund  of  God,  possibly  a  play  upon  the  name 
of  their  country  or  upon  the  biblical  saying,  "Ye  are  the  salt 
of  the  earth,"  or,  what  is  still  more  probable,  in  allusion  to 
the  mysteries  taught  by  Theophrastus  Paracelsus,  who  had 
died  at  Salzburg  and  had  recognized  a  divine  primordial  fac- 
ulty in  salt.  The  smith,  Stullebner  of  Hiittau,  was  the  most 
remarkable  among  their  leaders.     He  preached  so  eloquently 


AGE   OF   LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1255 

that  the  whole  of  his  congregation  generally  hurried  to  em- 
brace him  at  the  conclusion  of  his  discourse.  A  parody  upon 
his  sermons  has  been  published  by  the  Jesuits.  The  peasants 
were  also  encouraged  by  their  poet,  Loinpacher,  one  of  whose 
songs  has  been  preserved  by  Vierthaler. 

The  confederacy,  in  point  of  fact,  possessed  sufficient 
strength,  especially  in  the  mountains,  to  defend  itself  against 
the  archbishop  and  his  myrmidons,  but  the  Catholics  cunning- 
ly represented  these  peasants — who  were  neither  Catholics, 
nor  Lutherans,  nor  Zwinglians,  and  consequently  belonged  to 
none  of  the  privileged  churches — as  political  rebels,  in  order 
to  deprive  them  of  the  protection  of  the  Protestant  princes; 
and  it  was  principally  on  this  account,  if  not  from  an  enthu- 
siastic notion  of  religious  humility,  that  they  formed  the  de- 
termination not  to  oppose  violence  to  violence,  to  the  great 
discomfiture  of  the  archbishop  and  of  Rail,  who  had  already 
promulgated  a  report  of  their  being  in  open  rebellion.'  The 
emperor,  Charles  VI.,  meanwhile,  alarmed  lest  the  contagion 
might  spread  among  his  own  subjects  in  the  mountains,  lent 
a  willing  ear  to  the  tale  which  furnished  him  with  a  ready 
pretext  for  taking  the  severest  measures.  The  deputation, 
sent  by  the  Salzburg  peasantry  to  beg  for  his  interference, 
was,  by  his  orders,  imprisoned  at  Linz;  a  decree,  command- 
ing the  unconditional  submission  of  the  Salzburg  rebels,  was 
published,  and  six  thousand  men  were  sent  into  the  moun- 
tains in  order  to  enforce  obedience.  The  soldiers,  incited  by 
their  officers  and  by  the  priests,  fell  upon  the  peasantry  like 
hounds  upon  the  timid  deer.  They  were  dragged  from  their 
homes,  cruelly  beaten,  together  with  their  wives  and  chil- 
dren, and  plundered.  For  upward  of  a  month,  during  Sep- 
tember and  October,  1781,  these  crimes  were  countenanced 
by  the  archbishop,  who  tortured  the  heads  of  the  communes 
in  prison  while  the  villagers  fell  a  prey  to  the  license  of  the 

1  The  arsenal  at  Werfen  was  plundered  during  the  night,  time;  it  was  ere 
long,  however,  clearly  proved  to  have  been  done  by  suborned  Catholics.  Al- 
though, as  Casparis  relates,  all  the  peasantry  were,  like  the  Tyrolese,  sharp- 
shooters, they  unresistingly  allowed  themselves  to  bo  disarmed. 


1256  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

soldiery.  The  peasantry,  nevertheless,  still  continued  stead- 
fast in  their  faith,  and  the  king  of  Prussia  threatening  to 
treat  his  Catholic  subjects  as  Firmian  treated  his  Protestant 
ones,  Rail  became  alarmed  lest  the  wretched  peasant  might 
in  the  end  find  a  protector  (the  emperor  also  being  compelled 
on  account  of  the  Pragmatic  Sanction  to  keep  on  good  terms 
with  the  Protestant  princes),  and  came  to  the  determination 
of  expelling  every  Protestant  from  the  country,  as,  at  the 
same  time,  the  most  convenient  method  of  contenting  the 
pope,  of  extirpating  heresy  in  the  mountains,  and  of  pacify- 
ing the  king  of  Prussia,  to  whom  the  colonization  of  the  wide 
uncultivated  tracts  in  his  territories  was  an  object  of  no  small 
importance.  Recourse  was,  however,  again  had  to  every  de- 
visable method  for  the  conversion  of  the  peasantry,  in  order 
to  guard,  if  possible,  against  the  entire  depopulation  of  the 
country  by  emigration.  The  most  scandalous  measures  were 
resorted  to,  but  in  vain.  The  sentence  of  banishment  was 
passed,  and,  although  the  laws  of  the  empire  assured  free 
egress  to  all  those  emigrating  on  account  of  religion  together 
with  the  whole  of  their  property,  they  were  totally  disre- 
garded by  the  archbishop  and  the  imperial  troops,  and  the 
peasantry  were  hunted  down  in  every  direction.  Those  at 
work  in  the  fields  were  seized  and  carried  to  the  frontier 
without  being  allowed  to  return  home,  even  for  the  purpose 
of  fetching  their  coats.  Men  were  in  this  manner  separated 
from  their  wives,  parents  from  their  children.  They  were 
collected  in  troops  and  exposed  to  the  gibes  of  the  priests, 
the  soldiers,  and  the  Catholic  inhabitants,  who  gathered 
around  them  as  they  were  hurried  along.  Besides  being 
thus  compelled  to  abandon  their  homes,  they  were  deprived 
by  the  commissioners  of  any  sums  of  money  they  happened 
to  possess,  and  were  merely  granted  a  meagre  and  insuffi- 
cient allowance  for  the  expenses  of  the  journey. 

These  cruelties  were,  however,  unfelt  when  compared 
with  the  deprivation  of  their  children.  Upward  of  a  thou- 
sand children  were  torn  from  their  parents.  Some  of  the 
peasants,  broken-hearted  at  this  calamity,  forgot  their  oath 


AGE    OF    LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1257 

and  begged  to  be  allowed  to  remain  in  order  to  avoid  separa- 
tion from  their  children;  they  were  mercilessly  beaten,  driven 
out  of  the  country,  sometimes  obliged  to  stand  helplessly  by 
while  their  unhappy  children  were  tortured  and  ill-treated. 
Complaints  were  unavailing.  "We  obey  the  emperor's  com- 
mand,"  was  the  sole  reply.  Frederick  William  I.,  the  noble- 
hearted  king  of  Prussia,  was  the  only  German  prince  who 
exerted  himself  in  their  favor,  and  even  threatened  the  arch- 
bishop with  reprisals;  but  he  was  too  distant;  the  inhuman 
separation  of  the  children  from  their  parents,  a  barbarity 
worthy  of  cannibals  and  of  the  savages  of  the  wild,  not  of 
a  civilized  nation,  so  deeply  revolted  the  Prussian  monarch 
that  he  dispatched  commissioners  to  Salzburg  in  the  hope  of 
saving  some  of  the  children  by  this  exertion  of  his  authority, 
but  in  vain.  Some  of  the  boys,  more  courageous  than  the 
rest,  afterward  succeeded  in  escaping  from  the  hands  of  the 
Jesuits,  and  in  begging  their  way  to  the  new  settlements  on 
the  Baltic. 

The  expelled  peasantry  were,  ere  long,  followed  by  crowds 
of  voluntary  emigrants,  more  particularly  from  Berchtes- 
gaden.  They  were  mocked  and  ill-treated  during  their  pas- 
sage through  the  Catholic  countries,  but  found  a  friendly 
reception  in  Wurtemberg,  Nuremberg,  and  Hesse.  A  part 
of  them  went  to  Holland  and  North  America,  but  the  greater 
number,  amounting  to  sixteen  thousand  three  hundred  souls, 
went  into  Prussia  and  settled  in  the  dwelling-places  assigned 
to  them  by  the  king  on  the  Niemen  near  to  Tilsit,  where  their 
descendants  still  flourish. 

The  pope  bestowed  high  encomium  and  the  title  of  "ex- 
celsus"  on  the  archbishop.  The  establishment  of  a  fresh 
Inquisition  completely  extinguished  the  liberty  of  conscience 
still  feebly  glimmering  in  the  mountains.  The  more  wealthy 
inhabitants  were,  notwithstanding  the  religious  test,  exposed 
to  suspicion  and  to  the  consequent  confiscation  of  their  prop- 
erty. Missionaries  travelled  from  house  to  house,  listened 
to  the  guileless  talk  of  the  women  and  children,  and  then 
followed  coniiscation,  scourging,   imprisonment,  or  banish- 

Qsumany.     Vol.  III. — 15 


1258  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

ment  The  Reck  or  rack-tower  in  the  fortress  of  Werfen 
was  destined  exclusively  for  heretics,  who  were  slung  at  an 
immense  depth  by  long  chains.  According  to  the  assertion 
of  a  traitor  named  Vitus  Loitscherger,  no  fewer  than  two 
hundred  persons  were,  in  1743,  delivered  to  the  Inquisi- 
tion. 

A  similar  persecution,  though  not  to  such  an  extent,  be- 
fell the  secret  Protestants  in  Austria  at  about  the  same  period. 
The  mountaineers  in  the  Salzkammergut  were,  in  1733, 
first  treacherously  examined  under  an  assurance  of  liberty  of 
conscience  and  then  carried  away  by  the  soldiery  and  trans- 
ported to  Transylvania.  The  twelve  hundred  first  sent  away 
were,  in  1736,  followed  by  three  hundred  more.  But  when, 
in  1738,  a  great  number  of  Protestants  were  discovered  in 
the  Traun  district  and  in  Kremsmiinster,  permission  to  emi- 
grate was  refused  and  some  hundreds  of  them  were  shut  up 
in  a  crooked  position,  exposed  to  the  inclemency  of  the 
weather  and  miserably  fed;  many  of  them  died.  In  1740, 
Count  von  Seckau  banished  eight  hundred  men,  but  retained 
their  wives  and  families,  whom  he  compelled  to  embrace 
Catholicism. 

In  1660,  the  rebellion  of  the  peasantry  belonging  to  the 
countship  of  Wied  on  the  Rhine,  and,  in  1680,  that  of  the 
Bohemian  peasants,  against  the  heavy  socage- service,  occa- 
sioned its  limitation  by  the  emperor  to  a  certain  number  of 
days.  The  people  of  Hauenstein  in  the  Black  Forest  also 
refused  to  remain  bound  as  serfs  to  the  monastery  of  St. 
Blase,  and,  in  1728  and  1730,  formed  a  secret  confederation, 
under  the  name  of  Saltpetres,  for  the  recovery  of  their  lib- 
erty, and,  in  fact,  purchased  their  freedom  from  the  abbot 
in  1738.  In  1767,  the  Styrian  peasantry  rebelled  against  the 
heavy  average-service.1     In  1665,  the  citizens  of  Lubeck,  in 

1  On  the  7th  of  August,  1704,  the  peasantry  attacked  the  unpopular  Count 
von  Wurmbrand  in  his  cestle  in  Styria,  dragged  him  forth  and  murdered  him, 
each  man  dealing  him  a  blow  in  order  that  all  might,  without  exception,  par- 
ticipate in  the  murder.  In  1709,  a  noble  clerk  was  beaten  to  death  with  flails 
by  the  peasantry.  The  nobles  still  possessed  sufficient  power  to  tyrannize.  A 
Count  von  Droste-Vischering  in  the  Bergland,  being  obstructed  when  hunting 


AGE    OF   LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1259 

1708  those  of  Hamburg,  in  1720  those  of  Brussels,  opposed 
the  usurpations  of  the  city  oligarchy,  which  secretly  man- 
aged the  government  and  practiced  usury.  In  1716,  the 
citizens  of  Spires  again  rebelled  against  their  bishop,  who 
threatened  to  take  summary  vengeance  on  one  of  their  num- 
ber who  is  said  to  have  spoken  ill  of  him.  His  fellow-citi- 
zens took  his  part  and  prevented  the  bishop  from  executing 
his  threat,  until  the  peasantry,  at  his  instigation,  suddenly 
attacked  the  city,  killed  numbers  of  the  citizens,  and  dis- 
armed the  rest.  This  martial  bishop  was  named  Henry 
Hartard  von  Rollingen. 

Since  the  great  revolt  of  the  peasantry  in  Switzerland, 
that  people  had,  from  time  to  time,  vainly  sought  to  shake 
off  the  yoke  of  the  city  aristocracy.  After  a  long  fermenta- 
tion, Toggenburg,  so  long  enslaved  by  the  Catholic  cantons 
and  by  the  abbot  of  St.  Gall,  was  (1707),  on  the  intercession 
of  Zurich  and  Berne,  restored  to  the  enjoyment  of  religious 
liberty.  The  entry  of  the  Zurichers  into  Toggenburg  and 
the  acts  of  violence  committed  by  the  .Reformers  of  Toggen- 
burg in  a  Catholic  church,  however,  again  roused  the  an- 
cient religious  feud.  The  Catholic  population,  who  had  risen 
for  the  abbot,  tore  their  leader,  Felber,  whom  they  suspected 
of  treachery,  to  pieces.  The  anger  of  the  Catholic  cantons 
was  roused.  At  Schwyz,  the  brave  Stadler,  who  spoke  in 
favor  of  the  rights  of  the  people  of  Toggenburg,  was  be- 
headed. War  broke  out.  At  Bremgarten,  the  vanguard  of 
the  Catholics  was  beaten  by  the  Bernese.  The  Catholics, 
doubly  enraged  at  this  repulse  and  animated  by  the  nuncio 
and  by  the  monks,  rose  en  masse  and  overwhelmed  the  Ber- 
nese vanguard  at  Muri;  three  hundred  of  the  Bernese  were 
burned  to  death  in  the  church  and  on  the  tower  of  Meri- 
Bch warden,  where  they  had  long  defended  themselves;  the 
wounded  were  torn  to  pieces  by  dogs.  A  second  decisive 
battle  was  fought,  in  1712,  at  Villmergen,  where  a  con- 
by  a  smithy,  had  it  razed  to  the  ground.  Tho  proprietor  complained  and  re- 
ceived full  compensation  for  his  loss,  but  was  not  allowed  to  rebuild  tho  smithy. 
See  Montanus,  Olden  Times  in  Cloves  and  Berg. 


1260  THE   HISTORY    OF  GERMANY 

test  had  formerly  taken  place  for  a  similar  cause.  The 
Reformed  cantons  were  victorious.  The  Bernese  generals, 
Tscharner  and  Diessbach,  being  dangerously  wounded, 
Frisching,  the  mayor,  a  man  seventy-four  years  of  age, 
took  the  command  and  gained  the  day.  The  Catholics  left 
between  two  and  three  thousand  men  dead  on  the  field. 
Peace  was  made  at  Aargau,  and  the  confederation  remained 
unbroken,  notwithstanding  the  attempt  made  by  Louis  XIV., 
shortly  before  his  death,  to  divide  it  into  two  independent 
parts  according  to  their  confession  of  faith,  in  order  to  rule 
with  greater  facility  over  both.  A  dispute  that  not  long 
afterward  broke  out  between  Lucerne,  ever  so  zealously 
Catholic,  and  the  pope  contributed,  no  less  than  the  defeat 
at  Villmergen,  to  promote  toleration  toward  the  Reformers. 
On  the  occasion  of  the  consecration  of  the  church  at  Udli- 
genswyl,  in  1725,  dancing  was  prohibited  by  the  clergyman, 
Andernatt,  but  being  allowed  by  the  temporal  authorities, 
Andernatt  appealed  to  his  spiritual  superiors  and  protested 
against  the  permission.  He  was  suspended  and  banished  by 
the  council  of  Lucerne,  but  was  protected  by  Passionei,  the 
nuncio,  who  quitted  Lucerne  and  removed  his  residence  to 
Altorf.  The  dispute  increased  in  virulence;  the  pope  threat- 
ened, but  the  five  Catholic  cantons  assembling  and  declar- 
ing in  favor  of  the  council  of  Lucerne,  he  was  compelled 
to  yield,  and  Andernatt  remained  in  banishment,  1731. 
Shortly  after  this,  the  same  council  of  Lucerne,  by  way  of 
compensation  to  the  pope,  condemned  an  unlucky  peasant, 
Jacob  Schmidli  of  Sulzig,  for  reading  the  Bible  and  ex- 
pounding it  to  others,  to  the  stake  and  his  house  to  be 
levelled  with  the  ground,  1747. 

The  Swiss  governments,  at  that  period,  relieved  them- 
selves from  their  discontented  subjects  by  sending  them  into 
foreign  service.  The  higher  posts  in  the  army  were  heredi- 
tary in  the  aristocratic  families  and  were  extremely  lucra- 
tive. From  1742  to  1745  there  were  twenty-two  thousand 
Swiss  serving  in  France,  twenty  thousand  in  Holland,  thir- 
teen thousand  six  hundred  in  Spain,  four  thousand  in  Sar- 


AGE    OF   LOUIS    THE   FOURTEENTH  1261 

dinia,  two  thousand  four  hundred  in  the  imperial  army,  be- 
sides several  regiments  at  Naples  and  the  old  Swiss  guard 
at  Home. 

In  Berne,  the  power  became  gradually  more  firmly  cen- 
tred  in  a  few  of  the  great  aristocratic  burgher  families. 
Besides  the  actual  reigning  council  there  was  another  pseudo 
one,  in  which  the  young  patricians  managed  all  the  business, 
in  order  to  learn  the  art  of  government;  the  rest  of  the  citi- 
zens were  excluded  from  all  participation  in  public  affairs. 
The  material  comfort  of  the  citizens  was  well  attended  to  by 
the  aristocracy,  and  Berne  consequently  excelled  almost  all 
her  sister  cities  in  wealth  and  luxury;  but  the  mind  of  the 
citizen  was  enslaved,  and  the  insolence  with  which  the  patri- 
cians and  their  wives  treated  their  fellow-citizens  surpassed 
even  the  brutality  of  the  coxcombs  attached  to  the  worst  of 
the  German  courts.  A  conspiracy,  set  on  foot  by  Henzi,  the 
Bernese  captain,  was  discovered,  and  he  was  executed  to- 
gether with  two  of  his  associates.  The  headsman  several 
times  missing  his  stroke  and  hacking  him  on  the  neck,  he 
cried  out,  "Everything,  down  to  the  headsman,  is  bad  in 
this  republic!"  His  charge  against  the  aristocracy,  in  which 
he  describes  the  manners  of  that  time,  is  a  masterly  produc- 
tion.    His  death  has  been  immortalized  by  Lessing. 


1262  THE  HISTORY  OF  GERMANY 


PART  XXI 

THE    RISE    OF    PRUSSIA 


CCXXXIV.   Frederick   William  the  First 

THE  Reformation  had  been  converted  by  Luther  into 
a  cause  of  the  princes,  but  they  knew  not  how  to 
improve  the  power  placed  by  him  in  their  hands. 
Saxony  at  first  took  the  lead,  but  speedily  retrograded,  and 
Denmark,  the  successor  to  her  forsaken  power,  ever  actuated 
by  an  unholy  motive,  merely  aimed,  under  pretence  of  pro- 
tecting religious  liberty,  at  extending  her  sway  over  the 
cities  and  provinces  of  Germany.  A  separation,  conse- 
quently, ere  long  again  took  place  between  her  and  Swe- 
den, but  the  death  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  gave  a  death- 
blow to  every  hope,  and  Sweden  imitated  the  mean  policy 
of  Denmark.  The  Guelphic  house,  when  scarcely  settled 
and  promoted  to  the  electoral  dignity,  emigrated  to  Eng- 
land, and  Luther's  grand  bequest  was  transferred  solely  to 
the  house  of  Brandenburg. 

Frederick  I.,  although  fond  of  pomp  and  luxury  and 
oftentimes  misled,  was  fully  conscious  of  the  value  of  sow- 
ing for  the  future.  The  assumption  of  the  royal  dignity  was 
simply  an  external  sign  of  future  and  still  unobtained  grand- 
eur, a  hint  to  posterity.  The  improvement  of  the  Prussian 
army  by  Prince  Leopold  of  Anhalt-Dessau,  who  benefited 
Prussia  with  the  science  he  had  acquired  under  Eugene, 
whose  military  creations  in  Austria  had  died  with  him,  was 
of  far  greater  importance,  and  no  less  so  was  the  toleration 
with  which  the  king  favored  liberty  of  thought  in  the  new 


THE   RISE   OF   PRUSSIA  1263 

university  of  Halle,  although,  it  may  be,  simply  owing  to 
his  desire  to  raise  its  fame  by  that  means  above  that  so  long 
enjoyed  by  the  Saxon  universities. 

Leibnitz,  although  indubitably  the  greatest  genius  of  the 
age,  was,  owing  to  his  works  being  written  either  in  Latin 
or  in  French,  his  high  favor  with  the  electoral  house  of 
Hanover,  and  his  courtly  habits,  destitute  of  influence  over 
the  people.  A  few  of  the  learned  men  of  the  times  met 
with  better  success  in  supplying  the  real  wants  of  the  peo- 
ple, which  was  principally  done  by  the  professors  of  the 
university  of  Halle,  Thomasius  and  Franke,  both  of  whom 
formerly  belonged  to  that  of  Leipzig.  Thomasius  felt  that 
Germany  must  be  roused  before  she  could  be  rescued  from 
her  state  of  deep  degradation;  he  consequently  rejected  the 
Latin  pedantry  hitherto  fostered  by  the  universities,  and 
demanded  that  the  learned  men  of  Germany  should  again 
speak  and  write  in  pure  German,  the  first  step  toward  the 
enlightenment  of  the  people,  the  banishment  of  the  ancient 
superstitions,  of  the  thousand-fold  prejudices,  and  of  the  slav- 
ish fear,  by  which  his  countrymen  were  artificially  bound. 
He  appealed  to  reason  and  at  the  same  time  inculcated  true 
Christian  benevolence,  respect  for  the  natural  rights  of  man. 
To  his  eloquence  was  it  entirely  owing  that  a  stop  was  al- 
most everywhere  put  to  the  burning  of  witches.  He  spoke 
with  equal  warmth  against  torture  and  the  other  practices 
of  the  Roman  law,  by  which  German  liberty  was  ignomin- 
iously  converted  into  slavery.  But  in  this  he  was  unsuc- 
cessful; priestly  prejudices  were  voluntarily  sacrificed,  but 
those  in  which  temporal  tyranny  found  an  advantage  were 
held  sacred.  He  no  sooner  interfered  with  political  matters 
than  he  fell  under  the  ban.  In  Saxony,  he  was  the  first 
who  ventured  to  reveal  the  base  policy  of  the  long  deceased 
Hoe  von  Hoenegg.  Justly  roused  to  anger,  he  dared  to 
maintain,  in  defiance  of  the  Danish  court-chaplain,  Masius, 
who,  like  Pfaff  in  Tubingen,  had  recommended  Lutheran- 
ism,  on  account  of  its  servility,  to  all  princes,  that  religion 
was  ol  too  holy  a  nature  to  be  degraded  to  a  mere  political 


1264  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

tool.  This  assertion  was  the  signal  for  persecution.  In  Co- 
penhagen, his  controversial  works  were  burned  by  the  hang- 
man. At  Leipzig,  an  attempt  was  made  to  seize  his  person 
and  the  whole  of  his  property  was  confiscated.  He  found 
an  asylum  at  Halle  and  a  noble  patron  in  Frederick  I.,  who 
gave  his  pen  unshackled  liberty. 

He  was  accompanied  in  his  retreat  from  Leipzig  by  the 
pious  Franke,  the  founder  of  the  celebrated  Orphan  Asylum 
at  Halle.  He  was  Thomasius's  best  friend,  and  not  only 
shared  his  views  on  education,  but  sought  to  realize  them  by 
the  introduction,  for  the  first  time,  of  solid  instruction  into 
his  orphan  school,  where,  besides  the  Latin  and  theological 
pedantry  of  the  schools,  to  which  all  instruction  had  been 
hitherto  restricted,  the  German  language,  modern  languages, 
mathematics,  natural  philosophy,  and  history  were  taught. 
But  Franke  was  also  a  pietist  or  disciple  of  the  school  of 
piety  founded  by  Spener.  Sound  human  reason  and  genu- 
ine feeling  had  at  that  time  leagued  against  the  pedantry  of 
the  schools,  which  was  as  remarkable  for  want  of  sense  as 
for  its  cold  heartlessness,  and  even  a  cursory  glance  at  the 
immense  revolution  effected  since  this  period  by  enlighten- 
ment and,  it  may  be,  no  less  by  sentiment,  at  once  demon- 
strates the  importance  of  the  protection  granted  by  Prussia 
to  the  first  prophets  of  modern  intelligence. 

Frederick  I.  was  succeeded,  in  1730,  by  his  son,  Fred- 
erick William  I.,  who,  although  an  enemy  to  freedom  of 
thought  and  the  persecutor  of  Thomasius's  successor,  the 
philosopher,  Wolf,  whom  he  threatened  with  the  gallows  and 
expelled  Halle,  was  an  excellent  guardian  over  the  material 
interests  and  morals  of  his  subjects.  His  first  step,  immedi- 
ately on  his  accession  to  the  throne,  was  the  reduction  of  his 
father's  court,  which  was  placed  on  an  extremely  simple  and 
economical  footing.  Gold-embroidered  dresses  and  enormous 
perukes  were  no  longer  tolerated.  The  king  appeared  in  a 
little  blond  peruke,  a  close-fitting  dark-blue  uniform  turned 
up  with  red,  with  his  sword  at  his  side  and  a  strong  bamboo 
in  his  hand.     The  French,  their  license,  and  their  manners 


THE   RISE   OF   PRUSSIA  1265 

were  so  hateful  to  him  that,  in  order  to  render  them  equally 
unpopular  with  the  people  of  Berlin,  he  ordered  the  provosts 
and  jailers  to  be  dressed  in  the  last  French  fashion,  and 
"The  Marquis  dismissed  with  Blows,"  a  piece  eminently 
anti-Gallic,  to  be  represented  on  the  stage.  Often,  when, 
like  the  other  German  princes,  tempted  by  the  crafty  French 
court,  would  he  exclaim,  "I  will  not  be  a  Frenchman.  I  am 
thoroughly  German  and  would  be  content  were  I  but  presi- 
dent of  the  imperial  court  of  finance. ' '  On  another  occasion, 
he  said,  "I  will  place  pistols  and  swords  in  my  children's  cra- 
dles and  teach  them  to  keep  the  foreigner  out  of  Germany." 

He  believed  and  often  declared  himself  to  be  "only  the 
first  servant  of  the  state,"  and  excused  his  excessive  despot- 
ism on  the  score  of  duty. '  This  also  accorded  with  his  relig- 
ious notions.  He  considered  himself  as  a  servant  of  God 
and  wished  to  be  the  faithful  shepherd  of  his  flock.  En- 
dowed with  great  personal  activity,  he  tolerated  idleness  in 
no  one,  and  would  sometimes  bestow  a  hearty  drubbing  with 
his  own  hand  on  the  loungers  at  the  street  corners  in  Berlin. 
Manly  and  courageous,  he  had  a  horror  of  effeminacy  and 
cowardice,  and,  on  one  occasion,  gave  a  Jew  a  good  thrash- 
ing for  dreading  the  whip.  He  bore  an  almost  implacable 
hatred  to  his  own  son,  afterward  Frederick  the  Great,  merely 
because  he  suspected  him  of  cowardice. 

He  habituated  his  subjects  to  labor  and  industry,  and 
promoted  their  welfare  to  an  extraordinary  degree,  while  at 
the  same  time  he  filled  the  exchequer.  Partly  for  the  pur- 
pose of  depriving  the  people  of  Berlin  of  other  modes  of  ex- 

1  Among  the  executions  that  took  place  at  his  command,  that  of  the  intrigant, 
Clement,  who,  by  stirring  up  the  cabinets  of  Austria  and  Prussia,  sought  to  fish 
in  troubled  waters,  has  attracted  most  attention.  The  most  remarkable  among 
them  was,  however,  that  of  a  Count  von  Schlubeuth,  who  had  treated  his  serfs 
with  extreme  cruelty.  He  set  the  king  at  defiance,  and  said,  "it  is  not  the 
fashion  to  hang  a  noble."  He  was,  nevertheless,  hanged  on  the  ensuing  morn- 
ing. When  the  king  for  the  first  time  introduced  the  taxation  of  the  nobility 
and  was  opposed  in  this  measure  by  the  Estates  of  Eastern  Prussia,  he  boldly 
prosecuted  his  intended  reforms,  and  wrote,  "I  establish  my  sovereignty  like  a 
rock  in  t-onze. " — He  set  a  great  value  on  his  giant-guard,  and,  on  one  occasion, 
thrashed  the  whole  of  his  military  council  for  condemning  one  of  them  to  death 
for  thieving.  — Stenzel,  History  of  Prussia. 


1266  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

travagance,  partly  for  that  of  concentrating  the  whole  power 
of  the  state  by  the  foundation  of  a  large  metropolis,  he  com- 
pelled the  people  to  build  new  houses  in  Berlin,  in  the  Fried- 
richsstadt.  The  purport  of  his  decree  ran  simply  thus,  "The 
fellow  is  rich,  let  him  build."  Simplicity  of  dress  and  man- 
ners, economy,  thrift,  public  morality,  health,  honesty,  and 
truth,  were  strictly  enjoined.  In  his  daily  intercourse  with 
the  people,  he  praised  industrious  workmen  and  clean  house- 
wives, scolded  the  idle  and  dirty.  House  thieves  were  mer- 
cilessly hanged  before  the  house- door  In  his  own  person  he 
offered  an  example  of  economy.  While  other  princes  gave 
expensive  fetes  to  their  foreign  guests  and  ambassadors, 
Frederick  William  conducted  them  to  his  smoking-room  and 
invited  them  to  smoke  and  drink  beer  with  him.  This  cham- 
ber was  often  the  scene  of  important  negotiations.  Even 
Francis  of  Lorraine,  who  subsequently  mounted  the  imperial 
throne,  was  a  frequent  visitor  to  this  smoking-room  for  the 
purpose  of  gaining  the  vote  of  Prussia  for  the  approaching 
election.  Still,  the  coarse  amusements  of  this  monarch,  who 
took  delight  in  plying  his  foreign  guests  with  beer  until 
drunkenness  ensued,  and  in  rendering  them  sick  to  death 
with  the  unaccustomed  fumes  of  tobacco,  his  utter  contempt 
of  learning,  as  shown  by  his  treatment  of  the  learned  Gund- 
ling1  as  a  court-fool,  and  the  brutal  jokes  passed  upon  him 
and  others  for  the  amusement  of  his  boon  companions,  but 
too  forcibly  indicate  a  recurrence  to  the  uncouth  manners  of 
the  preceding  century. 

The  army,  excellently  organized  by  Dessau,  was  the  ob- 
ject of  the  king's  greatest  care,  and  it  was  from  him  (he  al- 
ways wore  a  uniform)  that  the  whole  state  and  population 
took  the  martial  appearance  still  forming  their  strongest 

1  Gundling,  although  created  a  baron,  a  member  of  every  council  of  state, 
and,  moreover,  president  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences,  was  compelled  to  permit 
an  ape,  dressed  like  himself,  to  bo  seated  at  his  side  at  table,  mustaches  to  be 
painted  on  his  face,  etc.,  etc.  His  body  was,  after  his  decease,  notwithstand- 
ing the  protest  of  the  clergy,  buried,  at  the  royal  command,  in  a  cask  instead  of 
%  coffin.  The  king,  on  one  occasion,  compelled  the  Frankfort  professors  to  dis- 
pute with  his  court-fools  over  the  thesis,  "Savants  are  fools." 


THE   RISE   OF   PRUSSIA  1267 

characteristic,  and  which,  at  that  time,  was  alone  able  to 
enforce  respect.  Germany  had,  for  a  century,  been  plun- 
dered by  the  foreigner.  Arms  alone  were  wanting  for  her 
defence,  and  the  terrors  of  war  would  again  march  in  her 
van.  The  formation  of  an  army  was  consequently  the  grand 
desideratum,  and  Frederick  William  may  therefore  be  par- 
doned for  his  Potsdam  hobby,1  his  grenadier  guard,  com- 
posed of  men  of  gigantic  stature,  whom  he  collected  from 
every  quarter  of  the  globe,  either  received  in  gift  or  carried 
away  by  force.  His  recruiting  officers  were  everywhere 
notorious  for  the  underhand  means  by  which  they  gained 
recruits,  and  were  often  exposed  to  the  greatest  peril  when 
engaged  in  pressing  men  into  the  service.  In  Holland,  one 
of  them  was,  sans  ceremonie,  hanged.  Hanover  threatened 
Prussia  with  war  on  account  of  the  subjects  stolen  from  her 
territory.  There  was,  moreover,  a  feud  between  the  king  of 
Prussia  and  George,  king  of  England  and  elector  of  Han- 
over, the  latter  having  wedded  the  Margravine  of  Anspach, 
the  object  of  Frederick  William's  affection,  and  having  be- 
stowed upon  him  in  her  stead  his  sister,  Sophia  Dorothea, 
to  whom,  like  a  good  and  steady  citizen,  he  nevertheless 
remained  faithful. 

The  sound  sense  that  rendered  this  gallant  monarch  the 
irreconcilable  enemy  of  France  also  guided  him  in  his  policy 
toward  Poland.  Instead  of  acceding  to  the  partition  of  that 
kingdom,  of  contenting  himself  with  her  smallest  division, 
and  of  exposing  the  frontiers  of  Germany  to  the  colossal 
power  of  Russia,  he  endeavored  to  raise  her  as  a  bulwark 
against  the  hostile  North,  and  strenuously  counselled  the 
Polish  nobility  to  remain  united,  to  keep  themselves  free 
from  foreign  influence,  and  to  elect  as  their  sovereign  one  of 
their  own  order,  no  foreigner,  least  of  all  one  recommended 
by  Russia.  Well  may  Germany  revere  this  noble  prince! 
His  policy  was,  as  that  of  all  her  sovereigns  ought  ever  to 
have  been  and  to  be,  genuinely  German.     The  straightfor- 

1  He  greatly  extended  and  beautilied  Potsdam  on  account  of  the  refusal  of 
the  Berlinese  to  maintain  too  numorous  a  garrison. 


1268  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

ward  German  honesty  of  the  father  was,  nevertheless,  des- 
tined to  cede  to  the  foreign  tastes  of  the  son. 

The  young  crown  prince,  Frederick,  was  extremely  beau- 
tiful during  his  infancy  and  early  evinced  the  rarest  intelli- 
gence. The  timidity  inspired  by  the  severity  of  his  father 
was  mistaken  by  the  latter  for  cowardice  and  hypocrisy,  and 
the  terms  on  which  they  lived  became  daily  worse.  The  son 
devoted  the  whole  of  his  leisure  to  the  study  of  French  works, 
which,  owing  to  their  lightness  and  wit,  naturally  presented 
far  greater  attractions  to  his  young  and  imaginative  mind 
than  the  heavy  German  literature  of  the  day,  with  the  best 
of  which  he  was,  moreover,  unacquainted,  studies  of  that 
nature  being  unpatronized  at  courts,  and  Frederick's  sole 
guide  being  the  young  and  libertine  Lieutenant  von  Katt, 
who  initiated  him  in  modern  French  philosophy.  Voltaire 
at  that  time  reigned  supreme.  His  ideas,  his  wit,  his  style, 
were  the  delight  of  his  contemporaries.  Diminutive,  horri- 
bly ugly,  a  devil's  mask  under  an  enormous  peruke,  he  was 
the  ape  of  our  great  Luther,  and  the  effect  he  produced  upon 
France,  a  caricature  of  the  Reformation  in  which  German 
dignity  and  depth  of  thought  were  parodied  by  French  flip- 
pancy and  frivolity.  Like  Luther,  he  waged  war  with  the 
priesthood,  and  by  ridiculing  their  depravity  ruined  them  in 
the  opinion  of  the  public.  But,  instead  of  confining  his  at- 
tack to  the  abuses  in  the  church,  he  directed  it  against  Chris- 
tianity itself.  Instead  of  seeking  to  heal  the  diseases  of  the 
church,  he  attempted  to  destroy  all  she  still  retained  of  holy, 
sound,  or  good.  He  sought  to  replace  the  strict  and  moral 
precepts  of  the  ancient  religion  by  a  modern  and  frivolous 
philosophy,  by  which  men  were  taught  to  disbelieve  the 
promises  of  the  Saviour,  were  relieved  from  every  fear  of 
eternal  punishment,  and  were  permitted  to  follow  their  own 
inclinations  in  this  world.  Virtue  and  vice  both  disappeared 
and  were  replaced  by  wit  and  dulness.  The  witling  was 
never  in  the  wrong,  might  act  as  he  pleased,  and  was  ever 
the  more  amiable  the  more  he  laughed  at  others.  Although 
guilty  of  the  most  abominable  crimes,  he  was  ever  an  excel- 


THE   RISE   OF   PRUSSIA  1269 

lent  wit,  courted  by  all  and  tolerated  everywhere.  The  sim- 
plicity of  virtue  was  the  climax  of  ridicule,  a  scorn  and  an 
obloquy.  Morality  was  treated  with  open  contempt,  and  the 
most  barefaced  license  was  practiced  under  pretence  of  obey- 
ing the  laws  of  nature.  The  youthful  prince  heard,  on  the 
one  hand,  the  brutal  invectives  of  his  father,  long-winded 
discourses  from  the  pulpit,  which,  in  the  bombastic  and  in- 
sipid style  of  the  day,  prohibited  the  most  innocent  enjoy- 
ments; and,  on  the  other  hand,  read  the  most  ravishing 
descriptions  of  scenes  of  sensual  delight  and  the  delusive 
phrases  of  the  convenient  philosophy  of  the  day,  which  dis- 
solved every  tie  of  duty  by  the  pretended  boon  of  liberty, 
and  all  this  in  the  honeyed  words  of  Voltaire.  The  contrast 
was  too  forcible.  The  secrecy  with  which  the  prince  was 
compelled  to  prosecute  his  French  studies  naturally  added  to 
their  zest.  He  was  as  if  inspired  and  began  to  write,  to  phi- 
losophize, and  to  poetize  completely  in  Voltaire's  style;  nor 
did  he  neglect  to  put  his  precepts  into  practice,  and  his  youth 
and  health  ere  long  fell  a  prey  to  the  consequences  of  vice.' 
His  father,  on  discovering  these  proceedings,  punished 
him  unmercifully  with  his  cane.  The  royal  youth  attempted 
to  escape,  during  a  journey  through  Franconia,  to  the  En- 
glish court,  which,  on  account  of  his  engagement  to  one 
of  the  English  princesses,  seemed  to  offer  the  safest  asylum; 
his  design  was,  however,  discovered;  he  was  seized  at  Frank- 
fort and  carried  into  the  presence  of  his  father,  who  person- 
ally ill-treated  him,  and,  drawing  his  sword,  was  on  the  point 
of  running  him  through,  when  he  was  prevented  by  General 
Mosel.  The  prince  and  his  accomplice,  Katt,  were,  however, 
condemned  to  death  for  desertion,  and  the  execution  of  the 
sentence  was  merely  prevented  by  the  representations  of 
the  foreign  courts.  Frederick  pined  for  several  weeks  in 
prison  with  a  Bible  and  a  book  of  hymns  for  recreation.  A 
ecaffold  was  erected  opposite  his  prison  window,  and  he  was 

1  Hence  his  unblessed  marriage  at  a  later  period,  his  separation  from  his 
vrifo  and  the  companions  of  his  youth,  and  his  solitary  existence  in  tho  palace 
of  Sana  Souci. 


1270  THE   HISTORY  OF  GERMANY 

compelled  to  witness  the  execution  of  his  ill-chosen  friend 
and  counsellor,  Katt.  Nor  was  the  lesson  without  effect. 
On  his  release,  he  passed  gradually  through  the  different 
offices  in  chancery,  and  made  himself  acquainted  with  all 
the  minutiae  of  the  business  of  the  state.  While  thus  occu- 
pied, he  discovered  so  much  talent  that  a  complete  reconcilia- 
tion took  place  between  him  and  his  father,  who  gave  him 
the  Rheinsperg  for  his  residence,  where,  without  neglecting 
political  science,  he  cultivated  the  muses  and  carried  on  a 
correspondence  with  Voltaire  and  other  celebrated  French 
philosophers  and  poets.  Both  father  and  son  learned  to 
regard  each  other  with  mutual  esteem,  and  the  latter,  on 
mounting  the  throne,  far  from  recalling  his  former  ill-treat- 
ment, ever  spoke  with  reverence  and  gratitude  of  the  parent 
who  so  well  prepared  him  for  a  period  replete  with  peril. 

CCXXXV.  Maria   Theresa 

Charles  VI.  expired  in  1740.  The  inutility  of  the 
Pragmatic  Sanction  became  instantly  apparent,  each  of  the 
parties  interested  in  its  revocation  forgetting  their  oath,  and 
the  Habsburg  possessions  were  alone  saved  from  dismember- 
ment by  Maria  Theresa,  Charles  VI. 's  daughter,  a  woman 
distinguished  for  beauty  and  for  a  character  far  surpassing  in 
vigor  that  of  her  father  and  those  of  many  of  her  ancestors. 

Charles  Albert,  the  licentious  elector  of  Bavaria,  quitted 
the  arms  of  his  mistresses,  Moravika  and  the  Countess  Fug- 
ger,  in  order  to  set  up  a  claim  to  the  whole  of  the  Habsburg 
possessions.  He  not  unjustly  maintained  that  if  the  property 
were  to  pass  into  the  female  line,  his  claim,  as  the  direct 
descendant  of  Albert,  duke  of  Bavaria,  who  had  married  a 
daughter  of  Ferdinand  I.,  was  superior  to  that  of  Maria 
Theresa  herself.  For  the  better  success  of  his  project,  he 
entered  into  alliance  with  France, '  the  ancient  foe,  and,  with 
Prussia,  the  modern  rival  of  the  house  of  Habsburg. 

1  He  wrote  in  the  basest  terms  to  the  French  king,  aa,  for  instance,  "Je 
regarderai  S.  M.  toujours  comme  mon  seul  soutien  et  mon  unique  appui.    Si  voii3 


THE   RISE    OF   PRUSSIA  1271 

Frederick  William  of  Prussia  also  expired  in  1740,  leav- 
ing to  his  son  Frederick  II.  thirty  million  dollars  in  the  ex- 
chequer and  a  well- disciplined  army,  amounting  to  seventy- 
two  thousand  men.  The  moment  seemed  propitious,  and 
Frederick,  without  waiting  for  Bavaria  or  France,  invaded 
Silesia  during  the  autumn,  under  pretext  of  making  good  his 
ancient  but  hitherto  unasserted  claim  upon  the  duchies  of 
Liegnitz,  Wohlau,  Brieg,  and  Jasgerndorf.  The  Austrians 
under  Neipperg,  taken  by  surprise,  were  defeated  at  Molwitz 
near  Brieg  by  the  Count  von  Schwerin,  Frederick  merely 
acting  the  part  of  a  spectator  in  this  first  engagement.  The 
result  of  this  success  was  a  treaty,  at  Nymphenburg,  with 
France'  and  Bavaria,  which  was  also  joined  by  Saxony;  and 
the  elector  of  Bavaria,  with  a  numerous  French  army  under 
Belleisle  and  a  Saxon  force  under  Rutowski,  the  natural  son 
of  Augustus,  entered  Bohemia  and  was  proclaimed  king  at 
Prague,  the  Bohemians,  as  Frederick  said,  gladly  seizing 
the  opportunity  to  free  themselves  from  the  unpopular  rule 
of  the  Habsburg.  Even  the  Catholic  clergy  in  Silesia,  whom 
Frederick  greatly  flattered,  were  opposed  to  the  Habsburg. 
The  Catholic  church  was  not  only  permitted  to  retain  the 
whole  of  her  immense  revenue,  but  was  prohibited  by  Fred- 
erick to  send  any  portion  of  it  to  Rome.  The  Catholic  faith 
was,  at  the  same  time,  protected,  and  the  Catholics  had 
every  reason  to  be  contented  with  the  Prussian  monarch. 

Maria  Theresa  was  exposed  to  the  utmost  peril.  Hun- 
gary, where  but  shortly  before  the  sovereignty  of  the  Habs- 
burg had  been  confirmed  amid  torrents  of  blood,  alone  re- 
mained true  to  her  cause.  She  convoked  the  proud  magnates 
to  the  diet  and  appeared  among  them  attired  in  the  Hun- 
garian costume,  the  sacred  crown  upon  her  head,  the  sabre 

me  faites  monter,  s'il  etoit  possible,  sur  ce  trone  imperial,  je  n'ai  point  do  termea 
qui  puissent  exprimer  toute  I'etenduo  de  ma  r^connoissance. "     He  promised, 
"Je  tacherai  toujours  d'unir  les  interets  de  I'empire  a  ceux  de  la  Franco.     Jo 
verrai  le  jour  de  mon  elevation  devenir  1'epoque  la  plus  gloricuso  do  voire 
istere." — Schlosser's  History  of  the  Eighteenth  Century. 

1  The  French  king  had  the  impudence  at  the  time  that  he  recognized  the 
elector  as  emperor  to  nominate  hirn  his  lioulenant-general. 


1272  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

girded  to  her  side,  radiant  with  beauty  and  spirit,  and  called 
upon  them,  on  their  duty  as  cavaliers,  to  stand  up  in  her 
cause.  The  whole  assemblage,  fired  with  enthusiasm  by 
her  charms,  exclaimed  with  one  voice,  "Moriamur  pro  rege 
nostro,  Maria  Theresa!"  (Let  us  die  for  our  king,  Maria 
Theresa!)  and  took  the  field  at  the  head  of  their  serfs,  thirty 
thousand  cavalry,  and  wild  hordes  of  Pandurs  and  Croats, 
which,  leaving  the  French  at  Prague,  moved  upon  Bavaria. 
The  circumstance  of  the  elector  being  at  that  conjuncture  at 
Frankfort1  for  the  purpose  of  solemnizing  his  coronation  as 
Charles  VLI.,  emperor  of  Germany,  inflamed  the  Hungarians 
with  still  greater  fury.  Bavaria  was  terribly  devastated, 
particularly  by  Menzel,  general  of  the  hussars,  a  Saxon  by 
birth,  who  took  Munich  in  1742,  on  the  same  day  on 
which  the  elector  was  crowned  at  Frankfort,  revived  all  the 
horrors  of  the  thirty  years'  war,  and,  on  the  Bavarians 
threatening  to  rise  en  masse,  gave  orders  that  "all  those 
taken  with  arms  in  their  hands  should  be  compelled  to  cut 
off  each  other's  noses  and  ears,  and  should  then  be  hanged."  * 
Barnklau  (or,  more  properly,  Percklo,  Baron  von  Schon- 
reuth)  and  Trenk  with  the  Pandurs  committed  equal  ex- 
cesses, and  the  peasants,  driven  to  despair,  rose  against 
them.  The  inhabitants  of  Cham  and  Mam  burg  were  cut 
down  to  a  man,  those  of  Landsberg  kept  their  ground,  and 
those  of  Tolz  succeeded  in  depriving  the  Pandurs  of  great 
part  of  their  booty.  Lukner,  who  afterward  became  a  field- 
marshal  in  the  French  service,  chiefly  distinguished  himself 
among  the  Bavarians.  Seckendorf,  now  an  old  man  and  an 
Austrian  exile,  was  raised  to  the  command  of  the  Bavarian 
troops,  but  effected  little.  Barnklau  took  Ingolstadt,  hitherto 
deemed  impregnable.  Khevenhuller  shut  up  sixteen  thou- 
sand French,  who  had,  under  Segur,  ventured  from  Bohemia 

1  Charles  was  crowned  by  his  brother  of  Cologne.  Belleisle,  the  French  am- 
bassador, played  the  chief  part,  and,  formally  taking  upon  himself  the  character 
of  protector,  took  precedence  of  all  the  German  princes. 

2  When  the  French  cried  out  "Pardon,  Monsieur!"  the  hussars  responded 
with  "Mors!  Mors!"  cut  off  their  heads  at  a  blow,  stuck  them  on  their  sabre 
points,  and  carried  them  about  in  triumph. 


THE   RISE   OF   PRUSSIA  1273 

into  Austria,  in  Linz,  and  took  them  prisoner, '  before  Fred- 
erick, who  had  invaded  Moravia  and  taken  Olmutz,  could 
advance  to  their  assistance. 

On  the  second  defeat  of  the  Austrians  under  Charles  of 
Lorraine  (in  whose  name  Browne  commanded),  at  Chotusiz, 
by  Frederick,  Maria  Theresa  offered,  in  1742,  to  cede  Si- 
lesia to  him  on  condition  of  his  withdrawal  from  the  treaty 
of  Nymphenburg.  The  offer  was  instantly  accepted,  and 
peace  was  concluded  at  Breslau.  Saxony  was  also  gained 
over  by  the  gift,  on  the  part  of  Maria  Theresa,  of  rich  lands 
in  Bohemia  to  Count  BruhL 

The  next  step  was  the  expulsion  of  the  French  from 
Prague.  Belleisle  was  closely  shut  up.  A  fresh  French 
army  under  Harcourt  approached  to  his  relief  and  drove  the 
Austrians  out  of  Bavaria,  but  fell  a  prey  to  cold  and  famine. 
A  third  army  under  Maillebois  penetrated  as  far  as  Bohemia, 
but  retraced  its  steps,  being  forbidden  by  the  miserable  petti- 
coat-government under  Louis  XV.  to  hazard  an  engagement. 
Belleisle,  driven  desperate  by  famine,  at  length  made  a  vig- 
orous sally  and  fought  his  way  through  the  Austrians,  but 
almost  the  whole  of  his  men  fell  victims,  during  the  retreat, 
to  the  severity  of  the  winter.  The  Bavarians  under  Seck- 
endorf  and  twenty  thousand  French  under  Broglio,  who  at- 
tempted to  come  to  his  relief,  were  defeated  by  Khevenhuller 
at  Braunau. 

Fortune  declared  still  more  decidedly  during  the  cam- 
paign of  1743  in  Maria  Theresa's  favor,  George  II.,  king  of 
England  (who,  not  long  before,  through  fear  of  losing  Han- 
over, had  yielded  to  the  counsels  of  France  and  Prussia  and 
had  voted  in  favor  of  Charles  VII.),  actuated  by  a  double 
jealousy,  on  account  of  England  against  France  and  on  ac- 
count of  Hanover  against  Prussia,  oringing  a  pragmatic 
army  levied  in  Northern   Germany2  to  her  aid.     Notwith- 

1  Segur's  wife  was  received  on  her  appearanco  in  the  theatre  at  Paris  with 
the  derisive  cry  of  "Linz!  Linz!"  and  died  of  shame  and  terror. 

2  Among  which  were  twenty  thousand  Swiss  mercenaries  and  six  hundred 
Hessians  whom  he  had  purchased  from  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse,  who  had  also 


1274  THE  HISTORY  OF  GERMANY 

standing  his  bad  generalship,  he  was  victorious  at  Dettin- 
gen,  not  far  from  Aschaffenburg,  over  the  French,  who 
were  still  worse  commanded  by  Noailles.  In  the  ensuing 
year,  Charles  of  Lorraine  crossed  the  Khine  at  the  head  of 
the  whole  Austrian  army  and  laid  Alsace  and  Lorraine 
waste. 2 

These  successes  were  beheld  with  impatience  by  Fred- 
erick, who  plainly  foresaw  the  inevitable  loss  of  Silesia, 
should  fortune  continue  to  favor  Maria  Theresa.  In  Aus- 
tria, public  opinion  was  decidedly  opposed  to  the  cession  of 
that  province.  In  order  to  obviate  the  danger  with  which 
he  was  threatened,  he  once  more  unexpectedly  took  up  arms 
and  gained  a  brilliant  victory  at  Hohenfriedberg  in  Silesia, 
and  another  at  Sorr  in  Bohemia,  where  Prince  Lobkowitz, 
in  attempting  to  rally  his  troops,  cut  down  three  Austrian 
captains,  but  was  himself  thrown  down  and  cast  into  a  ditch. 
Schwerin  took  Prague.  The  now  venerable  Dessau  was  again 
victorious  at  Kesselsdorf  in  Saxony,  and  Maria  Theresa  was 
compelled  by  the  treaty  of  Dresden,  in  1745,  once  more  to 
cede  Silesia  to  the  victorious  Prussian. — The  war  with  France 
was  still  carried  on.  The  Marchioness  of  Pompadour  at  that 
time  governed  Louis  XV.  and  bestowed  the  highest  offices  in 
the  army  on  her  paramours.  She  was  at  length  seized  with  a 
whim  to  guide  the  operations  of  the  campaign  in  person, 
and  took  the  field  with  an  immense  army  (among  which 
were  twenty-two  thousand  Swiss),  commanded  by  Noailles. 
The  campaign  was,  however,  a  mere  fete  for  the  king  and 
his  mistresses,  and  nothing  of  importance  was  in  consequence 
effected.  The  vanguard  under  Segur  was  defeated  at  Pfaffen- 
hofen,  and  some  skirmishing  parties  were  cut  to  pieces  by  the 
peasantry  in  the  forest  of  Bregenz.  The  main  body  was  de- 
sold  six  thousand  of  his  subjects  to  Charles  VII.  It  was  merely  owing  to  a 
favorable  chance  that  the  unfortunate  Hessians  were  not  compelled  to  fight 
each  other. 

1  The  sultan  Mahmud  V.  attempting  to  make  peace  between  the  contending 
parties,  the  French  ambassador  at  The  Hague  remarked,  "The  Turks  begin  to 
think  like  Christians."     "Aud  the  Chris  Jans,"  replied  the  grand  penbkmary 
Fagel,  "act.  none  the  less,  like  Turks." 


THE   RISE   OF   PRUSSIA  1275 

tained  by  the  siege  of  Freiburg  in  the  Breisgau,  where  it  lost 
twelve  thousand  men,  1744.  Charles  VII.  expired  in  the 
ensuing  year,  and  his  youthful  son  and  successor,  Maximil- 
ian Joseph,  being  inclined  to  peace,  Bavaria  being,  more- 
over, a  scene  of  fearful  desolation  and  Seckendorf  neglected 
by  the  French,  the  treaty  of  Fussen,  which  restored  every- 
thing to  its  ancient  footing,  was  concluded,  in  1745,  be- 
tween Bavaria  and  Austria. — The  French  instantly  with- 
drew from  the  Upper  Rhine  to  prosecute  the  war  with 
redoubled  fury  in  the  Netherlands,  where  they  were  served 
by  Maurice  of  Saxony,  who  had  a  theatre  in  his  camp  and 
made  life  one  long  fete  diversified  by  victories.  He  was 
opposed  by  the  English  under  the  Duke  of  Cumberland  and 
by  the  Dutch  under  Waldeck.  He  defeated  them  at  Fon- 
tenoy  and  took  Ghent,  Bruges,  and  Brussels,  where  Louis 
XV.  made  a  triumphal  entry  in  1745.  In  the  following 
vear,  Charles  of  Lorraine  entered  the  Netherlands  with  an 
imperial  auxiliary  force,  but  was  again  beaten  by  Rancoux 
and  Cumberland  at  Laffeld  in  1746.  Maurice1  also  took 
Maestricht.  And  all  these  deeds  were  done  for  France !  This 
attack  had,  like  its  predecessors,  the  effect  of  placing  a  Prince 
of  Orange  at  the  head  of  the  army  and  of  the  state.  On 
William's  accession  to  the  British  throne,  and  on  his  dying 
without  issue,  the  house  of  Orange  was  represented  by  a 
side-branch,  John  William  Friso,  stadtholder  of  Friesland. 
He  was  drowned,  and  his  posthumous  son,  William  IV., 
succeeded,  in  1711,  to  the  hereditary  stadtholdership. — 
France  also  at  that  time  created  a  diversion  for  England. 
Charles  Edward  Stuart,2  the  grandson  of  the  exiled  king, 
James  II.,  aided  by  French  gold,  raised  a  rebellion  in  Scot- 


'  The  French  had  the  impudence  to  speak  of  him  as  "ce  brave  Comto  de 
Saxe,  qui  lave  si  bien  par  sa  valeur  la  honte  d'etre  ne"  Allemaud. "  Maurice 
wrote  a  work  on  the  science  of  war.  He  died  in  1750,  and  was  buried  at 
Strasburg. 

9  He  afterward  married  the  Countess  Stolberg,  so  celebrated  for  her  beauty, 
who,  under  the  title  of  Duchess  of  Albany,  lived  unhappily  with  this  simple 
prince.  She  was  termed  "la  reine  des  cceurs,"  on  account  of  her  amiability. 
She  was  the  friend  of  the  Italian  poet  Alfien. 


1276  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

land  in  the  hope  of  expelling  the  house  of  Hanover  from  the 
throne  of  Britain,  but  was  defeated  at  Culloden  in  1746. 

In  Italy,  the  Austrians  under  Lobkowitz  also  opposed  the 
French,  Spanish,  and  Neapolitans,  while  an  English  fleet 
struck  Naples  with  terror.  It  was  not,  however,  until  1746, 
that  the  war  was  decided  by  the  arrival  of  strong  reinforce- 
ments from  Austria.  Browne  was  victorious  at  Guastalla, 
Lichtenstein  at  Piacenza,  and  Provence  was  on  the  point 
of  being  invaded,  when  the  population  of  Genoa,  hitherto 
stanch  imperialists,  rebelled  against  General  Botta,  who 
had  condemned  some  of  the  citizens  to  the  lash  and  had  de- 
manded a  contribution  of  twenty-five  millions  as  well  as  all 
their  arms,  and,  headed  by  a  Doria,  drove  the  imperialists, 
after  a  "battle  that  lasted  several  days,  out  of  the  city, 
December,  1746.  The  war  was  at  length  terminated  by  the 
peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle.  Each  party  remained  in  statu 
quo,  Maria  Theresa  alone  ceding  Parma,  Piacenza,  and 
Guastalla  to  a  Spanish  prince,  with  the  proviso  of  their 
reversion  to  Austria  in  case  of  his  dying  without  issue;  her 
husband,  Francis  I.,  was  recognized  emperor  by  all  the 
European  powers.  On  his  coronation,  in  1746,  at  Frank- 
fort, Maria  Theresa  withdrew  in  order  that  all  the  honor 
might  be  conferred  upon  him  alone,  and  no  sooner  was  the 
ceremony  concluded,  than,  stepping  on  the  balcony,  she 
motioned  to  the  people  and  was  the  first  to  cry  l'Vivat!" 
Francis,  nevertheless,  was  merely  invested  with  the  imperial 
dignity,  and  Maria  Theresa  reigned  alone,  aided  by  her  subtle 
minister  Kaunitz.  Francis,  although  totally  devoid  of  am- 
bition, possessed  great  mercantile  inclinations  and  amused 
himself  with  secretly  transacting  money  business.  He  had 
the  merit  of  reforming  the  imperial  household  and  of  putting 
a  stop  to  the  lavish  expenditure  that  had  been  allowed  under 
Charles  VI. 

Frederick  II.,  after  gaining  laurels  in  the  field,  equally 
distinguished  himself  as  a  statesman  and  a  bel  esprit.  Like 
his  father,  absolute  in  his  sovereignty,  he  brought  the  ma- 
chine of  state,  alone  subservient  to  his  will,  to  a  higher  de- 


THE   RISE   OF  PRUSSIA  1277 

gree  of  perfection.  His  administration  was  unparalleled. 
The  increase  of  the  wealth  of  the  country  by  the  cultivation 
of  waste  land  and  by  industry,  a  limited  expenditure,  and 
the  strict  observance  of  economy  and  order,  formed  the  basis 
of  his  plan.  He  equally  aimed  at  order,  simplicity,  and  strict 
justice  in  legal  matters,  and,  in  1746,  caused  the  corpus  juris 
Fridericianum,  the  basis  of  the  provincial  law  of  Prussia, 
to  be  drawn  up  by  Cocceji.  The  use  of  torture  was  abol- 
ished. The  strictness  with  which  the  public  officers  were 
disciplined  was  as  flattering  to  the  people  as  the  fame  they 
had  lately  gained  during  the  war  and  the  acquisition  of  the 
fine  and  fertile  province  of  Silesia.  Frederick,  although  at 
that  period  at  the  height  of  his  popularity,  withdrew,  in 
1747,  from  public  to  private  life.  In  the  lonely  solitudes  of 
Sans  Souci,  a  palace  built  by  him  in  the  vicinity  of  Berlin, 
he  lived  separate  from  his  consort,  Elisabeth  Christina 
of  Wolfenbuttel,  and  devoted  himself  to  the  state  and  to 
the  study  of  French  literature.  With  the  exception  of  his 
generals  and  ministers,  the  blind  instruments  of  his  will,  he 
was  surrounded  by  Frenchmen.  He  founded  an  academy 
of  sciences,  presided  over  by  Maupertius  and  almost  totally 
composed  of  Frenchmen.1  Frederick  both  wrote  and  com- 
posed in  French.     He  also  played  well  on  the  flute. 

While  Prussia  was  thus  rising  in  the  scale  of  European 
powers,  Saxony  was  reduced  by  her  minister,  Bruhl,  to  the 


1  His  favorite,  Voltaire,  visited  him  in  1745,  and  again  in  1750,  with  the  in- 
tention  of  remaining  with  him;  the  two  philosophers  did  not,  however,  long 
agree.  Frederick  sometimes  set  a  limit  to  the  pretensions  of  the  vain,  mean, 
and  grasping  Frenchman,  who  treated  the  Germans  with  unheard-of  insolence. 
On  one  occasion,  when  at  table  with  the  king,  he  termed  one  of  the  royal  pages 
a  Pomeranian  beast.  The  king,  shortly  afterward,  making  a  journey  through 
Pomerania  with  Voltaire  in  his  suite,  the  page  in  revenge  spread  a  report  of  his 
being  the  king's  ape,  and  the  peasants,  deceived  by  his  extraordinary  ugliness, 
assembled  in  crowds  round  his  carriage,  from  which  they  would  not  allow  him 
to  descend,  teasing  him  as  if  he  were  in  reality  an  ape.  Voltaire  at  length  fled 
from  the  Prussian  court,  carrying  away  with  him  some  interesting  papers  be- 
longing to  the  king.  He  was  deprived  of  them  at  Frankfort  on  the  Maine,  aud 
was  allowed  to  depart.  A  correspondence,  nevertheless,  continued  to  be  carried 
on  between  him  and  the  king,  who  again  esteemed  him  as  a  man  of  talent,  when 
no  longer  reminded  of  his  puerilities  by  his  presence. 


1278  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

verge  of  ruin.  He  had  already  burdened  her  with  a  debt  oi 
a  hundred  million  dollars,  for  two  years  he  had  withheld  the 
public  salaries,  and  these  measures  proving  insufficient,  he 
had  sold  Saxon  troops  to  the  Dutch  and  English,  for  the 
defence  of  their  colonies,  in  1751.  Josepha,  princess  of 
Saxony,  had,  four  years  earlier,  been  married  to  the  French 
Dauphin,  to  whom  she  bore  three  kings,  Louis  XVI.,  Louis 
XVIII.,  and  Charles  X.,  whose  sad  fate  might  well  result 
from  the  union  of  two  courts  governed  by  a  Pompadour  and 
a  Bruhl. — The  deep  dungeons  of  the  Konigstein,  the  Son- 
nenstein,  and  the  Pleissenburg  were  crowded  with  malcon- 
tents. These  horrors  occasioned  the  retreat  of  Count  Zin- 
zendorf  from  the  world,  and,  in  1722,  his  offer  of  an  asylum 
in  the  Herrnhut  to  persons  equally  piously  disposed.  He 
termed  himself  "the  assembler  of  souls."  He  was  ban- 
ished as  a  rebel  by  Bruhl,  but  was,  in  1747,  permitted 
to  return  and  to  continue  his  pious  labors. 

The  rising  prosperity  of  Prussia,  the  superior  talents  and 
statesmanship  of  her  king  and  his  unsparing  ridicule  had 
gained  for  him  the  enmity  of  all  his  brother  sovereigns. 
The  mention  of  Silesia  filled  Maria  Theresa  alternately  with 
rage  and  sorrow,  and  her  subtle  minister  ingratiated  himself 
ever  the  more  deeply  in  her  favor  by  his  unwearying  en- 
deavors to  regain  possession  of  that  rich  and  fertile  country. 
Elisabeth,  empress  of  Russia,  enraged  at  Frederick's  biting 
satire  on  her  unbridled  license,  was,  notwithstanding  the 
little  interest  felt  by  Russia  in  the  aggra  idizement  of  Aus- 
tria, ready  to  lend  her  aid.  England  was,  on  account  of  her 
ancient  alliance  with  Austria,  pointed  out  as  a  third  ally. 
France,  on  the  eve  of  declaring  war  with  England  on  account 
of  her  colonies,  sought,  as  formerly,  to  form  a  confederacy 
with  Prussia.  Monsieur  de  Rouille  said  to  Kniphausen,  the 
Prussian  ambassador  at  Paris,  "Write  to  your  king  that  he 
must  aid  us  against  Hanover;  there  is  plenty  to  get;  the 
king  has  only  to  make  the  attack;  he  will  have  a  good 
haul."  Frederick  had,  however,  no  intention  to  quarrel 
with  England,  and  before  the  French  minister  had  recov- 


THE   RISE   OF  PRUSSIA  1279 

ered  from  his  astonishment  at  the  refusal,  Kaunitz1  unex- 
pectedly proposed  an  alliance  between  Austria  and  France, 
and  Maria  Theresa  was  actually  induced,  in  her  anxiety  to 
gain  over  Louis  XV.,  to  send  a  confidential  letter  to  Madame 
de  Pompadour,  whom  she  addressed  as  her  cousin.  France, 
independent  of  the  condescension  of  the  Austrian  empress, 
naturally  lent  a  willing  ear  to  the  proposal,  nor  will  she  at 
any  time  refuse  her  aid  to  one  German  potentate  against 
another  so  long  as  her  interest  is  promoted  by  civil  dissen- 
sions in  Germany.  The  possession  of  a  German  province 
would  again  have  rewarded  France  had  not  the  league,  not- 
withstanding its  strength,  been  overthrown.  Austria  de- 
prived herself  of  her  glorious  title  of  defender  of  Germany 
against  France,  and  for  the  future  lost  the  right  of  reproach- 
ing other  states  with  their  unpatriotic  policy. 2    On  the  second 


1  Prince  Kaunitz's  policy  to  raise  France  at  the  expense  of  the  empire  ran 
exactly  counter  to  that  of  Frederick  William  of  Prussia  and  offers  a  rare  example 
of  depravity.  Kaunitz  founded  the  Viennese  chancery  of  state,  the  wheel  by 
which  the  mechanism  of  government  was  turned.  He  was  the  oracle  of  the 
diplomatic  world  and  was  long  termed  "the  European  coachman."  He,  how- 
ever, forgot  that  the  policy  of  the  German  emperor  ought  also  to  be  German. 
He  was  one  of  those  wiseacres  of  his  time  who  overlooked  the  real  wants,  pow- 
ers, and  limits  of  the  nations  under  his  rule,  and  who  formed  artificial  states  in 
defiance  of  nature.  Countries  appertaining  to  one  another,  nations  similar  in  de- 
scent, were  torn  asunder;  others,  separated  by  nature  or  differing  in  origin,  were 
pronounced  one.  Enmity  was  sown  between  the  most  natural  political  allies, 
and  those  whom  nature  had  iutendod  for  opponents  were  joined  together  in  alli- 
ance. The  greater  the  inconsistency  the  more  indubitable  the  talent  of  the  di- 
plomatist. Kaunitz  was  a  thorough  personification  of  this  unnatural  policy.  He 
was  even  in  his  person  a  caricature.  His  admirer,  Hormayr,  relates  of  him, 
"He  never  enjoyed  nor  could  endure  the  open  air.  If,  during  the  summer  heats, 
when  not  a  leaf  stirred,  he,  by  chance,  sat  in  his  armchair  in  the  chancery  gar- 
den adjoining  the  Bastei  or  passed  thence,  a  few  steps  further,  to  the  palace,  he 
carefully  guarded  his  mouth  with  his  handkerchief.  He  always  dressed  accord- 
ing to  the  weather  and  had  his  rooms  well  furnished  with  thermometers  and 
barometers.  In  the  autographic  instructions  given  to  each  of  his  lecturers,  he 
begged  of  them  never  to  mention  in  his  hearing  these  two  words,  'death  and 
smallpox.'  His  highest  expression  of  praise  was  ever,  'My  God!  I  could  not 
have  done  it  better  myself.'  " 

1  Keith,  the  English  ambassador,  did  not  fail  to  represent  the  iniquitous  con- 
duct of  France  against,  the  German  empire  to  the  empress,  Maria  Theresa.  In 
reference  to  the  possibility  that  Franco  might  repay  herself  for  hor  alliance  with 
a  province  of  Western  Germany,  Maria  Theresa  declared  her  policy  to  be  that 
of  the  house  of  Habsburg,  not  that  of  Germany:  "I  can  take  little  interest  in 
distant  provinces;  I  must  confine  myself  to  the  defence  of  the  hereditary  states, 
and  have  but  two  enemies  to  dread,  Turkey  and  Prussia."     Frederick  was,  in 


1280  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

of  May,  1756,  the  treaty  of  Versailles  was  concluded  between 
Austria  and  France.  According  to  the  terms  of  that  treaty, 
France  was  to  bring  one  hundred  and  five  thousand  men 
into  the  field  and  to  take  ten  thousand  Bavarians  and  Wur- 
tembergers  into  her  pay  against  Prussia,  besides  paying  an 
annual  subsidy  of  twelve  million  francs  to  Austria,  in  return 
for  which  she  was  to  hold  part  of  the  Netherlands  with  the 
harbor  of  Ostend.  The  rest  of  the  Netherlands  (Luxemburg 
excepted)  was  bestowed  upon  a  French  prince,  Philip  of 
Parma.  The  fortress  of  Luxemburg  was  to  be  razed  to  the 
ground.  Austria,  on  the  other  hand,  was  to  hold  Silesia  and 
Parma;  Saxony,  Magdeburg,  the  circle  of  the  Saal,  and 
Halberstadt;  Sweden,  Pomerania;  Poland,  at  that  time  in 
alliance  with  Saxony,  the  kingdom  of  Prussia;  Eussia,  Cour- 
land  and  Semgall.  Cleves  was  also  to  be  severed  from 
Prussia. — This  treaty  was,  however,  merely  provisional. 
The  alliance  between  the  two  empresses  and  France  (the 
Marquise  de  Pompadour),  termed  by  Frederick  "l'alliance 
des  trois  cotillons,"  was  still  by  no  means  concluded.  Nego- 
tiations with  Eussia  were  still  pending.  Saxony,  although 
destined  to  play  a  part  of  such  importance,  had  not  yet  been 
consulted. '     Her  adherence,  as  well  as  that  of  Sweden,  was 


point  of  fact,  as  little  German  in  his  policy.  He  would  unhesitatingly  have  re- 
warded France  for  her  aid  with  a  German  province,  nor  was  it  owing  to  him 
that,  at  all  events,  part  of  the  Netherlands  did  not  fall  under  her  rule.  Once 
only,  during  the  seven  years'  war,  was  he  struck  with  the  folly  of  two  German 
powers  fighting  for  the  advantage  of  France.  "Imagine,  my  Lord,"  wrote 
Mitchel,  "the  wretched  state  of  Europe.  The  two  principal  powers  of  Germany 
have  almost  succeeded  in  ruining  each  other,  while  France  looks  on  with  secret 
delight,  apparently  aiding  one  and  perhaps  stirring  up  the  other  in  order  to  ac- 
celerate the  downfall  of  both.  Would  it  were  possible  to  reconcilo  Prussia  and 
Austria,  and  to  turn  both  against  France!  Senseless  and  impossible  as  this 
project  may  appear,  it  was,  nevertheless,  assented  to  by  Frederick  II.  in  a  con- 
ference before  the  battle  of  Prague." 

1  The  proof  is  contained  in  the  documents  concerning  the  occasion  of  the 
seven  years'  war;  Leipzig,  Teubner,  1841.  When  Austria,  in  1746,  laid  the 
preliminaries  to  an  alliance  with  Russia  against  Prussia,  into  which  she  at- 
tempted to  draw  Saxony,  Saxony  refused  her  participation  and  was  consequently 
not  admitted  into  the  negotiations  secretly  carried  on,  at  a  later  period,  by  Aus- 
tria with  France  and  Russia.  The  revelations,  asserted  by  Frederick  the  Great 
to  have  been  made  to  him  by  Mentzel,  the  clerk  of  the  Saxon  chancery,  from 
papers  out  of  the  secret  cabinet,  were,  consequently,  by  no  means  the  principal 


THE   RISE    OF   PRUSSIA  1281 

deemed  certain,  Bruhl,  the  Saxon  minister,  bearing  a  per- 
sonal hatred  to  Frederick  on  account  of  the  scorn  with  which 
he  had  been  treated  by  that  monarch. 

The  news  of  the  treaty  of  Versailles  found  Frederick  pre- 
pared for  the  event.  Clearly  foreseeing  the  certain  and 
speedy  coalition  of  his  enemies,  he  determined  to  be  the 
first  in  the  field  and  to  surprise  them  ere  they  had  time  to 
coalesce.  Deeply  sensible  of  the  hazard  of  his  position,  he 
carried  poison  on  his  person  during  the  whole  of  the  pro- 
tracted war,  being  firmly  resolved  not  to  survive  the  loss  of 
his  possessions.  To  appeal  to  God  and  to  the  justice  of  his 
cause  was  denied  him,  for  his  sufferings  were  merely  a  retali- 
ation of  those  he  had  inflicted  upon  others.  The  partition  of 
Prussia  in  1756  was  equally  just  with  that  of  Austria  in 
1741.  National  enthusiasm  was  a  thing  unknown,  for  the 
people  were  slaves  accustomed  to  be  passed  from  one  rule  to 
another.  Frederick's  sole  resource  lay  in  his  genius,  and  in 
this  he  alone  confided  for  success  as  he  courageously  un- 
furled his  flag  before  Austria  had  armed  or  war  had  been 
declared  by  France.  A  man  of  a  less  decisive  character 
would  have  hesitated,  would  still  have  hoped,  negotiated,  or 
have  made  concessions  to  such  overwhelming  opponents,  in- 
stead of  boldly  taking  the  initiative  and  proving  to  the  aston- 
ished world  that  peril,  however  great,  may  be  surmounted 
by  courage  and  decision.  Frederick's  enemies  intended  to 
bring  against  him  a  force  of  five  hundred  thousand  men, 
to  surround  and  crush  him.  This  force  had,  however,  still 
to  be  levied;  the  object  of  Frederick's  whole  policy  was  con- 
sequently the  prevention  of  the  coalition  of  the  forces  of  his 
opponents  in  order  to  attack  them  singly.  The  pretended  dis- 
covery of  papers  in  Berlin,  disclosing  the  whole  plan  of  the 
coalition,  provided  him  with  a  pretext  for  the  declaration  of 
war,  and  the  diplomatic  world  was  by  this  means  led  to  be- 
cause of  the  war.  Frederick  learned  the  most  important  secrets  from  Vienna 
and  Petersburg.  Maria  Theresa  also  committed  the  imprudence  of  solemnizing 
the  festival  of  St.  Hedwig,  the  protectress  of  Silesia,  with  remarkable  pomp  at 
Vienna. 

German*.     Vol.  III.— 16 


1282  THE  HISTORY  OF   GERMANY 

lieve  in  the  reality  of  the  manoeuvres  he  had  simply  foreseen. 
His  denunciation  of  a  coalition,  still  formally  unconcluded, 
was  instantly  productive  of  the  catastrophe. 

England,  deluded  by  a  pretended  alliance  between  France 
and  Prussia,  joined  Austria  and  .Russia,  an  alliance  tnat  was 
viewed  with  pleasure  by  George  II.,  between  whom  and 
Frederick  a  personal  dislike  existed.  The  deception  was, 
however,  no  sooner  discovered  than  the  Parliament  and  the 
prime  minister,  Pitt,  ranged  themselves  on  the  side  of  Prussia, 
and  the  king  was  compelled  to  yield.  Hesse- Cassel,  Bruns- 
wick, Gotha,  and  Lippe  also  joined  Prussia.  The  rest  of  the 
empire,  seduced  by  bribery,  sided  with  Austria  and  France. 
Bavaria,  apparently  the  least  likely  of  all  the  European 
powers  to  join  with  Austria  for  the  destruction  of  Prussia, 
had,  since  1750,  received  monthly  from  France  (from  the 
secret  fund)  the  sum  of  50,000  livres,  amounting  in  all  to 
8,700,000  livres.  The  Pfalz  also  received  11,300,000;  Pfalz- 
Zweibrucken,  4,400,000;  Wurtemberg,  10,000,000;  Cologne, 
7,300,000;  Mayence  only  500,000;  Anspach,  Baireuth,  Darm- 
stadt about  100,000;  Liege,  Mecklenburg,  Nassau,  some- 
thing more,  altogether  3,000,000;  even  the  petty  principal- 
ity of  Waldeck  received  50,000.  The  empire  was  in  this 
manner  bought.  France  had  so  much  superfluous  wealth 
that  she  also  paid  a  subsidy  of  82,700,000  livres  to  Austria, 
and  another  of  8,800,000  to  Saxony,  toward  the  expenses  of 
the  war  with  Prussia. 

CCXXXVI.    TJie  Seven   Years'   War 

In  the  autumn  of  1756,  Frederick,  unexpectedly  and  with- 
out previously  declaring  war,  invaded  Saxony,  of  which  he 
speedily  took  possession,  and  shut  up  the  little  Saxon  army, 
thus  taken  unawares,  on  the  Elbe  at  Pima.  A  corps  of 
Austrians,  who  were  also  equally  unprepared  to  take  the 
field,  hastened,  under  the  command  of  Browne,  to  their 
relief,  but  were,  on  the  1st  of  October,  defeated  at  Lowositz, 
and  the  fourteen  thousand  Saxons  under  Rutowsky  at  Pima 


THE   RISE   OF   PRUSSIA  1283 

were  in  consequence  compelled  to  lay  down  their  arms,  the 
want  to  which  they  were  reduced  by  the  failure  of  their  sup- 
plies having  already  driven  them  to  the  necessity  of  eating 
hair-powder  mixed  with  gunpowder.  Augustus  III.  and 
Bruhl  fled  with  such  precipitation  that  the  secret  archives 
were  found  by  Frederick  at  Dresden.  The  electress  vainly 
strove  to  defend  them  by  placing  herself  in  front  of  the 
chest;  she  was  forcibly  removed  by  the  Prussian  grenadiers, 
and  Frederick  justified  the  suddenness  of  his  attack  upon 
Saxony  by  the  publication  of  the  plans  of  his  enemies.  He 
remained  during  the  whole  of  the  winter  in  Saxony,  furnish- 
ing his  troops  from  the  resources  of  the  country.  It  was 
here  that  his  chamberlain,  Glasow,  attempted  to  take  him 
off  by  poison,  but,  meeting  by  chance  one  of  the  piercing 
glances  of  the  king,  tremblingly  let  fall  the  cup  and  con- 
fessed his  criminal  design,  the  inducement  for  which  has 
ever  remained  a  mystery,  to  the  astonished  king. 

The  allies,  surprised  and  enraged  at  the  suddenness  of 
the  attack,  took  the  field,  in  the  spring  of  1757,  at  the  head 
of  an  enormous  force.  Half  a  million  men  were  levied, 
Austria  and  France  furnishing  each  about  one  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand,  .Russia  one  hundred  thousand,  Sweden  twenty 
thousand,  the  German  empire  sixty  thousand.  These  masses 
were,  however,  not  immediately  assembled  on  the  same  spot, 
were,  moreover,  badly  commanded  and  far  inferior  in  dis- 
cipline to  the  seventy  thousand  Prussians  brought  against 
them  by  Frederick.  The  war  was  also  highly  unpopular  and 
created  great  discontent  among  the  Protestant  party  in  the 
empire.  On  the  departure  of  Charles  of  Wurtemberg  for 
the  imperial  army,  his  soldiery  mutinied,  and,  notwithstand- 
ing their  reduction  to  obedience,  the  general  feeling  among 
the  imperial  troops  was  so  much  opposed  to  the  war  that 
most  of  the  troops  deserted  and  a  number  of  the  Protestant 
soldiery  went  over  to  Frederick.  The  Prussian  king  was 
put  out  of  the  ban  of  the  empire  by  the  diet,  and  the  Prus- 
sian ambassador  at  Hatisbon  kicked  the  bearer  ot  the  decree 
out  of  the  door. 


1284  THE   HISTORY   OF    GERMANY 

Frederick  was  again  the  first  to  make  the  attack,  and,  in 
the  spring  of  1757,  invaded  Bohemia.  The  Austrian  army 
under  Charles  of  Lorraine  lay  before  Prague.  The  king, 
resolved  at  all  hazards  to  gain  the  day,  led  his  troops  across 
the  marshy  ground  under  a  terrible  and  destructive  fire  from 
the  enemy.  His  gallant  general,  Schwerin,  remonstrated 
with  him.  "Are  you  afraid?"  was  the  reply.  Schwerin, 
who  had  already  served  under  Charles  XII.  in  Turkey  and 
had  grown  gray  in  the  field,  stung  by  this  taunt,  quitted  his 
saddle,  snatched  the  colors  and  shouted,  "All  who  are  not 
cowards,  follow  me!"  He  was  at  that  moment  struck  by 
several  cartridge- balls  and  fell  to  the  ground  enveloped  in 
the  colors.  The  Prussians  rushed  past  him  to  the  attack. 
The  Austrians  were  totally  routed;  Browne  fell,  but  the  city 
was  defended  with  such  obstinacy  that  Daun,  one  of  Maria 
Theresa's  favorites,  was,  meanwhile,  able  to  levy  a  fresh 
body  of  troops.  Frederick,  consequently,  raised  the  siege  of 
Prague  and  came  upon  Daun  at  Collin,  where  he  had  taken 
up  a  strong  position.  Here  again  were  the  Prussians  led 
into  the  thickest  of  the  enemy's  fire,  Frederick  shouting  to 
them,  on  their  being  a  third  time  repulsed  with  fearful  loss, 
"Would  ye  live  forever  ?"  Every  effort  failed,  and  Benken- 
dorf's  charge  at  the  head  of  four  Saxon  regiments,  glowing 
with  revenge  and  brandy,  decided  the  fate  of  the  day.  The 
Prussians  were  completely  routed.  Frederick  lost  his  splen- 
did guard  and  the  whole  of  his  luggage.  Seated  on  the  verge 
of  a  fountain  and  tracing  figures  in  the  sand,  he  reflected  upon 
the  means  of  realluring  fickle  fortune  to  his  standard. 

A  fresh  misfortune  befell  him  not  many  weeks  later. 
England  had  declared  in  his  favor,  but  the  incompetent  En- 
glish commander,  nicknamed,  on  account  of  his  immense 
size,  the  Duke  of  Cumberland,  allowed  himself  to  be  beaten 
by  the  French  at  Hastenbek  and  signed  the  shameful  treaty 
of  Closter  Seeven,  by  which  he  agreed  to  disband  his  troops. ' 

1  The  Hanoverian  nobility,  who  hoped  thereby  to  protect  their  property, 
were  implicated  in  this  affair.  They  were  shortly  afterward  well  and  deservedly 
punished,  being  laid  under  contribution  by  the  French. 


THE   RISE   OF  PRUSSIA  1285 

This  treaty  was  not  confirmed  by  the  British  monarch.  The 
Prussian  general,  Lewald,  who  had  merely  twenty  thousand 
men  under  his  command,  was,  at  the  same  time,  defeated  at 
Gross-Zagerndorf  by  an  overwhelming  Russian  force  under 
Apraxin.  Four  thousand  men  were  all  that  Frederick  was 
able  to  bring  against  the  Swedes.  They  were,  nevertheless, 
able  to  keep  the  field,  owing  to  the  disinclination  to  the  war 
evinced  by  their  opponents. 

Autumn  fell,  and  Frederick's  fortune  seemed  fading  with 
the  leaves  of  summer.  He  had,  however,  merely  sought  to 
gain  time  in  order  to  recruit  his  diminished  army,  and  Daun 
having,  with  his  usual  tardiness,  neglected  to  pursue  him,  he 
suddenly  took  the  field  against  the  imperialists  under  the 
duke  of  Saxon-Hildburghausen  and  the  French  under  Sou- 
bise.  The  two  armies  met  on  the  5th  of  November,  1757, 
on  the  broad  plain  around  Leipzig,  near  the  village  of  Ross- 
bach,  not  far  from  the  scene  of  the  famous  encounters  of 
earlier  times.  The  enemy,  three  times  superior  in  number 
to  the  Prussians,  lay  in  a  half-circle  with  a  view  of  surround- 
ing the  little  Prussian  camp,  and,  certain  of  victory,  had 
encumbered  themselves  with  a  numerous  train  of  women, 
wigmakers,  barbers,  and  modistes  from  Paris.  The  French 
camp  was  one  scene  of  confusion  and  gayety.  On  a  sudden, 
Frederick  sent  General  Seidlitz  with  his  cavalry  among 
them,  and  an  instant  dispersion  took  place,  the  troops  flying 
in  every  direction  without  attempting  to  defend  themselves; 
some  Swiss,  who  refused  to  yield,  alone  excepted.  The  Ger- 
mans on  both  sides  showed  their  delight  at  the  discomfiture 
of  the  French.  An  Austrian  coming  to  the  rescue  of  a 
Frenchman,  who  had  just  been  captured  by  a  Prussian, 
"Brother  German,"  exclaimed  the  latter,  "let  me  have  this 
French  rascal!"  "Take  him  and  keep  him!"  replied  the 
Austrian,  riding  off.  The  scene  more  resembled  a  chase 
than  a  battle.  The  imperial  army  (Reichsarmee)  was  thence 
nicknamed  the  runaway  (Reissaus)  army.  Ten  thousand 
French  were  taken  prisoners.  The  loss  on  the  side  of  the 
Prussians  merely  amounted  to  one  hundred  and  sixty  men. 


1280  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

The  booty  chiefly  consisted  in  objects  of  gallantry  belonging 
rather  to  a  boudoir  than  to  a  camp.  The  French  army  per- 
fectly resembled  its  mistress,  the  Marquise  de  Pompadour.1 
The  Austnans  had,  meanwhile,  gained  great  advantages 
to  the  rear  of  the  Prussian  army,  had  beaten  the  king's 
favorite,  General  Winterfeld,  at  Moys  in  Silesia,  had  taken 
the  important  fortress  of  Schweidnitz  and  the  metropolis, 
Breslau,  whose  commandant,  the  Duke  of  Bevern  (a  col- 
lateral branch  of  the  house  of  Brunswick),  had  fallen  into 
their  hands  while  on  a  reconnoitring  expedition.  Frederick, 
immediately  after  the  battle  of  Eossbach,  hastened  into 
Silesia,  and,  on  his  march  thither,  fell  in  with  a  body  of  two 
thousand  young  Silesians,  who  had  been  captured  in  Schweid- 
nitz, but,  on  the  news  of  the  victory  gained  at  Eossbach,  had 
found  means  to  regain  their  liberty,  and  had  set  off  to  his 
rencounter.  The  king,  inspirited  by  this  reinforcement,  hur- 
ried onward,  and,  at  Leuthen,  near  Breslau,  gained  one  of 
the  most  brilliant  victories  during  this  war  over  the  Aus- 
trians.  Making  a  false  attack  upon  the  right  wing,  he  sud- 
denly turned  upon  the  left.  ' '  Here  are  the  Wurtembergers, ' ' 
said  he,  "they  will  be  the  first  to  make  way  for  us!"  He 
trusted  to  the  inclination  of  these  troops,  who  were  zealous 
Protestants,  in  his  favor.  They  instantly  gave  way  and 
Daun's  line  of  battle  was  destroyed.  During  the  night,  he 
threw  two  battalions  of  grenadiers  into  Lissa,  and,  accom- 
panied by  some  of  his  staff,  entered  the  castle,  where,  meet- 
ing with  a  number  of  Austrian  generals  and  officers,  he 
civilly  saluted  them  and  asked,  "Can  one  get  a  lodging  here 
too?"  The  Austrians  might  have  seized  the  whole  party, 
but  were  so  thunderstruck  that  they  yielded  their  swords, 
the  king  treating  them  with  extreme  civility.     Charles  of 

1  Seidlitz,  who  covered  himself  with  glory  on  this  occasion,  was  the  best 
Horseman  of  the  day.  He  is  said  to  have  once  ridden  under  the  sails  of  a  wind- 
mill when  in  motion.  One  day,  when  standing  on  the  bridge  over  the  Oder  at 
Frankfort,  being  asked  by  Frederick  what  he  would  do  if  blocked  up  on  both 
sides  by  the  enemy,  he  leaped,  without  replying,  into  the  deep  current  and  swam 
to  shore.  The  Black  Hussars  with  the  death's  head  on  their  cups  chiefly  distin- 
guished themselves  during  this  war. 


THE   RISE   OF  PRUSSIA  1287 

Lorraine,  weary  of  his  unvarying  ill-luck,  resigned  the  com. 
mand  and  was  nominated  stadtholder  of  the  Netherlandsv 
where  he  gained  great  popularity.  At  Leuthen  twenty-one 
thousand  Austrians  fell  into  Frederick's  hands;  in  Breslau, 
which  shortly  afterward  capitulated,  he  took  seventeen  thou- 
sand more,  so  that  his  prisoners  exceeded  his  army  in  number. 
Fresh  storms  rose  on  the  horizon  and  threatened  to  over- 
whelm the  gallant  king,  who,  unshaken  by  the  approaching 
peril,  firmly  stood  his  ground.  The  Austrians  gained  an 
excellent  general  in  the  Livonian,  Gideon  Laudon,  whom 
Frederick  had  refused  to  take  into  his  service  on  account 
of  his  extreme  ugliness,  and  who  now  exerted  his  utmost 
endeavors  to  avenge  the  insult.  The  great  Russian  army, 
which  had  until  now  remained  an  idle  spectator  of  the  war, 
also  set  itself  in  motion.  Frederick  advanced,  in  the  spring 
of  1758,  against  Laudon,  invaded  Moravia,  and  besieged 
Olmutz,  but  without  success;  Laudon  ceaselessly  harassed 
his  troops  and  seized  a  convoy  of  three  hundred  wagons. 
The  king  was  finally  compelled  to  retreat,  the  Russians, 
under  Fermor,  crossing  the  Oder,  murdering  and  burning 
on  their  route,  converting  Custrin,  which  refused  to  yield, 
into  a  heap  of  rubbish,  and  threatening  Berlin.  They  were 
met  by  the  enraged  king  at  Zorndorf.  Although  but  half  as 
numerically  strong  as  the  Russians,  he  succeeded  in  beating 
them,  but  with  the  loss  of  eleven  thousand  of  his  men,  the 
Russians  standing  like  walls.  The  battle  was  carried  on 
with  the  greatest  fury  on  both  sides;  no  quarter  was  given; 
and  men  were  seen,  when  mortally  wounded,  to  seize  each 
other  with  their  teeth  as  they  rolled  fighting  on  the  ground. 
Some  of  the  captured  Cossacks  were  presented  by  Frederick 
to  some  of  his  friends  with  the  remark,  "See,  with  what 
vagabonds  I  am  reduced  to  fight!"  He  had  scarcely  recov- 
ered from  this  bloody  victory  than  he  was  again  compelled 
to  take  the  field  against  the  Austrians,  who,  under  Daun  and 
Laudon,  had  invaded  Lusatia.  He,  for  some  time,  watched 
them  without  hazarding  an  engagement,  under  an  idea  that 
they  were  themselves  too  cautious  and  timid  to  venture  an 


1288  THE   HISTORY    OF    GERMANY 

attack.  He  was,  however,  mistaken.  The  Austrians  sur- 
prised his  camp  at  Hochkirch  during  the  night  of  October 
the  14th.  The  Prussians — the  hussar  troop  of  the  faithful 
Ziethen,  whose  warnings  had  been  neglected  by  the  king, 
alone  excepted — slept,  and  were  only  roused  by  the  roaring 
of  their  own  artillery,  which  Laudon  had  already  seized  and 
turned  upon  their  camp.  The  excellent  discipline  of  the  Prus- 
sian soldiery,  nevertheless,  enabled  them,  half-naked  as  they 
were,  and  notwithstanding  the  darkness  of  the  night,  to  place 
themselves  underarms,  and  the  king,  although  with  immense 
loss,  to  make  an  orderly  retreat.  He  lost  nine  thousand  men, 
many  of  his  bravest  officers,  and  upward  of  a  hundred  pieces 
of  artillery.  The  principal  object  of  the  Austrians,  that  of 
taking  the  king  prisoner  or  of  annihilating  his  army  at  a 
blow,  was,  however,  frustrated.  Frederick  eluded  the  pur- 
suit of  the  enemy  and  went  straight  into  Silesia,  whence  he 
drove  the  Austrian  general,  Harsch,  who  was  besieging 
Neisse,  across  the  mountains  into  Bohemia.  The  approach 
of  winter  put  a  stop  to  hostilities  on  both  sides. 

During  this  year,  Frederick  received  powerful  aid  from 
Ferdinand,  duke  of  Brunswick,  brother  to  Charles,  the  reign- 
ing duke,  who  replaced  Cumberland  in  the  command  of  the 
Hanoverians  and  Hessians,  with  great  ability  covered  the 
right  flank  of  the  Prussians,  manoeuvred  the  French,  under 
their  wretched  general,  Richelieu,  who  enriched  himself  with 
the  plunder  of  Halberstadt,  across  the  .Rhine,  and  defeated 
Clermont,  Richelieu's  successor,  at  Crefeld.  His  nephew, 
the  crown  prince,  Ferdinand,  served  under  him  with  distinc- 
tion. Toward  the  conclusion  of  the  campaign,  an  army  un- 
der Broglio  again  pushed  forward  and  succeeded  in  defeat- 
ing the  Prince  von  Ysenburg,  who  was  to  have  covered 
Hesse  with  seven  thousand  men,  at  Sangerhausen;  another 
body  of  troops  under  Soubise  also  beat  Count  Oberg  on  the 
Lutterberg.  The  troops  on  both  sides  then  withdrew  into 
winter  quarters.  The  French  had,  during  this  campaign, 
also  penetrated  as  far  as  East  Friesland,  whence  they  were 
driven  by  the  peasantry  until  Wurmser  of  Alsace  made  terms 


THE   RISE    OF   PRUSSIA  1289 

with  them  and  maintained  the  severest  discipline  among  his 
troops. 

The  campaign  of  1759  was  opened  with  great  caution  by 
the  allies.  The  French  reinforced  the  army  opposed  to  the 
duke  of  Brunswick  and  attacked  him  on  two  sides,  Broglio 
from  the  Maine,  Contades  from  the  Lower  Rhine.  The  duke 
was  pushed  back  upon  Bergen,  but  nevertheless  gained  a 
glorious  victory  over  the  united  French  leaders  at  Minden. 
His  nephew,  the  crown  prince,  Ferdinand,  also  defeated  an- 
other French  army  under  Brissac,  on  the  same  day,  at  Her- 
ford.  The  imperial  army,  commanded  by  its  newly  nomi- 
nated leader,  Charles  of  Wurtemberg,  advanced,  but  was 
attacked  by  the  crown  prince,  while  its  commander  was 
amusing  himself  at  a  ball  at  Fulda,  and  ignominiously  put 
to  flight.  Frederick,  although  secure  against  danger  from 
this  quarter,  was  threatened  with  still  greater  peril  by  the 
attempted  junction  of  the  Russians  and  Austrians.  who  had 
at  length  discovered  that  the  advantages  gained  by  Fred- 
erick had  been  mainly  owing  to  the  want  of  unity  in  his 
opponents.  The  Russians  under  Soltikow,  accordingly,  ap- 
proached the  Oder.  Frederick,  at  that  time  fully  occupied 
with  keeping  the  main  body  of  the  Austrians  under  Daun  at 
bay  in  Bohemia,  had  been  unable  to  hinder  Laudon  from 
advancing  with  twenty  thousand  men  for  the  purpose  of 
forming  a  junction  with  the  Russians.  In  this  extremity, 
he  commissioned  the  youthful  general,  Wedel,  to  use  every 
exertion  to  prevent  the  further  advance  of  the  Russians. 
Wedel  was,  however,  overwhelmed  by  the  Russians  near  the 
village  of  Kay,  and  the  junction  with  Laudon  took  place. 
Frederick  now  hastened  in  person  to  the  scene  of  danger, 
leaving  his  brother,  Henry,  to  make  head  against  Daun. 
On  the  banks  of  the  Oder  at  Cunnersdorf,  not  far  from 
Frankfort,  the  king  attempted  to  obstruct  the  passage  of  the 
enemy,  in  the  hope  of  annihilating  him  by  a  bold  manoeuvre, 
which,  however,  failed,  and  he  suffered  the  most  terrible  de- 
feat that  took  place  on  either  side  during  this  war,  August 
the  12th,  1759.     He  ordered  his  troops  to  storm  a  sand  moun- 


1290  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

tain,  bristling  with  batteries,  from  the  bottom  of  the  valley 
of  the  Oder;  they  obeyed,  but  were  unable  to  advance 
through  the  deep  sand,  and  were  annihilated  by  the  enemy's 
fire.  A  ball  struck  the  king,  whose  life  was  saved  by  the 
circumstance  of  its  coming  in  contact  with  an  etui  in  his 
waistcoat  pocket.  He  was  obliged  to  be  carried  almost  by 
force  off  the  field  when  all  was  lost.  The  poet,  Kleist,  after 
storming  three  batteries  and  crushing  his  right  hand,  took 
his  sword  in  his  left  hand  and  fell,  while  attempting  to  carry 
a  fourth. 

Soltikow,  fortunately  for  the  king,  ceased  his  pursuit. 
The  conduct  of  the  Russian  generals  was,  throughout  this 
war,  often  marked  by  inconsistency.  They  sometimes  left 
the  natural  ferocity  of  their  soldiery  utterly  unrestrained,  at 
others,  enforced  strict  discipline,  hesitated  in  their  move- 
ments, or  spared  their  opponent.  The  key  to  this  conduct 
was  their  dubious  position  with  the  Russian  court.  The  em- 
press, Elisabeth,  continually  instigated  by  her  minister,  Bes- 
tuscheff,  against  Prussia,  was  in  her  dotage,  was  subject  to 
daily  fits  of  drunkenness,  and  gave  signs  of  approaching  dis- 
solution. Her  nephew,  Peter,  the  son  of  her  sister,  Anna, 
and  of  Charles  Frederick,  Prince  of  Holstein-Gottorp,  the 
heir  to  the  throne  of  Russia,  was  a  profound  admirer  of  the 
great  Prussian  monarch,  took  him  for  his  model,  secretly 
corresponded  with  him,  became  his  spy  at  the  Russian  court, 
and  made  no  secret  of  his  intention  to  enter  into  alliance  with 
him  on  the  death  of  the  empress.  The  generals,  fearful  of 
rendering  themselves  obnoxious  to  the  future  emperor,  con- 
sequently showed  great  remissness  in  obeying  BestuschefTs 
commands.  Frederick,  however,  although  unharassed  by 
the  Russians,  was  still  doomed  to  suffer  fresh  mishaps.  His 
brother,  Henry,  had,  with  great  prudence,  cut  off  the  mag- 
azines and  convoys  to  Daun's  rear,  and  had  consequently 
hampered  his  movements.  The  king  was,  notwithstanding, 
discontented,  and,  unnecessarily  fearing  lest  Daun  might  still 
succeed  in  effecting  a  junction  with  Soltikow  and  Laudon, 
recalled  his  brother,  and  by  so  doing  occasioned  the  very 


THE   RISE   OF  PRUSSIA  1291 

movement  it  was  his  object  to  prevent.  Daun  advanced; 
and  General  Fink,  whom  Frederick  had  despatched  against 
him  at  the  head  of  ten  thousand  men,  fell  into  his  hands. 
Shut  up  in  Maxen,  and  too  weak  to  force  its  way  through 
the  enemy,  the  whole  corps  was  taken  prisoner.  Dresden 
also  fell ;  Schmettau,  the  Prussian  commandant,  had,  up  to 
this  period,  bravely  held  out,  notwithstanding  the  smallness 
of  the  garrison,  but,  dispirited  by  the  constant  ill  success,  he 
at  length  resolved,  at  all  events,  to  save  the  military  chest, 
which  contained  three  million  dollars,  and  capitulated  on  a 
promise  of  free  egress.  By  this  act  he  incurred  the  heavy 
displeasure  of  his  sovereign,  who  dismissed  both  him  and 
Prince  Henry. '  Fortune,  however,  once  more  favored  Fred- 
erick ;  Soltikow  separated  his  troops  from  those  of  Austria 
and  retraced  his  steps.  The  Russians  always  consumed 
more  than  the  other  troops,  and  destroyed  their  means  of 
subsistence  by  their  predatory  habits.2  Austria  vainly  of- 
fered gold;  Soltikow  persisted  in  his  intention  and  merely 
replied,  "My  men  cannot  eat  gold."  Frederick  was  now 
enabled,  by  eluding  the  vigilance  of  the  Austrians,  to  throw 
himself  upon  Dresden,  for  the  purpose  of  regaining  a  posi- 
tion indispensable  to  him  on  account  of  its  proximity  to  Bo- 
hemia, Silesia,  the  Mere,  and  Saxony.  His  project,  how- 
ever, failed,  notwithstanding  the  terrible  bombardment  of 
the  city,  and  he  vented  his  wrath  at  this  discomfiture  on  the 
gallant  regiment  of  Bernburg,  which  he  punished  for  its 
want  of  success  by  stripping  it  of  every  token  of  military 
glory.  The  constant  want  of  ready  money  for  the  purpose 
of  recruiting  his  army,  terribly  thinned  by  the  incessant  war- 
fare, compelled  him  to  circulate  a  false  currency,  the  En- 
glish subsidies  no  longer  covering  the  expenses  of  the  war 
and  his  own  territory  being  occupied  by  the  enemy.    Saxony 

1  Frederick  the  Great  has  been  ever  charged  with  ingratitude  for  this  treat- 
ment of  his  brother,  who  expired  during  the  ensuing  year.  Schmottau  is  the 
same  officer  who  had  risen  to  such  distinction  during  the  war  with  Turkey. 

'  Frederick  rephed  to  the  loud  complaints,  "We  have  to  do  with  barbarians, 
foes  to  humanity.  We  ought,  however,  rather  to  seek  a  remedy  for  the  evil 
than  to  give  way  to  lamentations." — Klobvr. 


1292  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

consequently  suffered,  and  was,  owing  to  this  necessity, 
completely  drained,  the  town-council  at  Leipzig  being,  for 
instance,  shut  up  in  the  depth  of  winter  without  bedding, 
light,  or  firing,  until  it  had  voted  a  contribution  of  eight 
tons  of  gold;  the  finest  forests  were  cut  down  and  sold,  etc. 
Berlin,  meanwhile,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Eussians,  who, 
on  this  occasion,  behaved  with  humanity.  General  Tottle- 
ben  even  ordered  his  men  to  fire  upon  the  allied  troop,  con- 
sisting of  fifteen  thousand  Austrians,  under  Lascy  and  Bren- 
tano,  for  attempting  to  infringe  the  terms  of  capitulation  by 
plundering  the  city.  The  Saxons  destroyed  the  chateau  of 
Charlottenburg  and  the  superb  collection  of  antiques  con- 
tained in  it,  an  irreparable  loss  to  art,  in  revenge  for  the  de- 
struction of  the  palaces  of  Bruhl  by  Frederick.  No  other 
treasures  of  art  were  carried  away  or  destroyed  either  by 
Frederick  in  Dresden  or  by  his  opponents  in  Berlin. — This 
campaign  offered  but  a  single  pleasing  feature,  the  unex- 
pected relief  of  Colberg,  who  was  hard  pushed  by  the  Rus- 
sians in  Pomerania,  by  the  Prussian  hussars  under  General 
Werner. 

Misfortune  continued  to  pursue  the  king  throughout  the 
campaign  of  1760.  Fouquet,  one  of  his  favorites,  was,  with 
eight  thousand  men,  surprised  and  taken  prisoner  by  Laudon 
in  the  Giant  Mountains  near  Landshut;  the  mountain  coun- 
try was  cruelly  laid  waste.  The  important  fortress  of  Glatz 
fell,  and  Breslau  was  besieged.  This  city  was  defended  by 
General  Tauenzien,  a  man  of  great  intrepidity.  The  cele- 
brated Lessing  was  at  that  time  his  secretary.  With  merely 
three  thousand  Prussians,  he  undertook  the  defence  of  the 
extensive  city,  within  whose  walls  were  nineteen  thousand 
Austrian  prisoners,  and,  on  Laudon  threatening  to  storm  the 
place  and  not  even  to  spare  the  child  within  its  mother's 
womb,  he  coolly  replied,  "Neither  I  nor  my  men  happen  to 
be  in  the  family  way."  He  maintained  the  city  until  re- 
lieved by  Frederick.  The  king  hastened  to  defend  Silesia, 
for  which  Soltikow's  procrastination  allowed  him  ample 
opportunity.     Daun  had,  it  is  true,  succeeded  in  forming  a 


THE   RISE   OF   PRUSSIA  1293 

junction  with  Laudon  at  Liegnitz,  but  their  camps  were  sep- 
arate, and  the  two  generals  were  on  bad  terms.  Frederick 
advanced  close  in  their  vicinity.  An  attempt  made  by  Lau- 
don, during  the  night  of  the  15th  of  August,  to  repeat  the 
disaster  of  Hochkirch,  was  frustrated  by  the  secret  advance 
of  the  king  to  his  rencounter,  and  a  brilliant  victory  was 
gained  by  the  Prussians  over  their  most  dangerous  antag- 
onist. The  sound  of  the  artillery  being  carried  by  the  wind 
in  a  contrary  direction,  the  news  of  the  action  and  of  its  dis- 
astrous termination  reached  Daun  simultaneously;  at  all 
events,  he  put  this  circumstance  forward  as  an  excuse,  on 
being,  not  groundlessly,  suspected  of  having  betrayed  Lau- 
don from  a  motive  of  jealousy.  He  retreated  into  Saxony. 
The  regiment  of  Bernburg  had  greatly  distinguished  itself  in 
this  engagement,  and  on  its  termination,  an  old  subaltern 
officer  stepped  forward  and  demanded  from  the  king  the  res- 
toration of  its  military  badges,  to  which  Frederick  gratefully 
acceded. 

Scarcely,  however,  were  Breslau  relieved  and  Silesia  de- 
livered from  Laudon's  wild  hordes,  than  his  rear  was  again 
threatened  by  Daun,  who  had  fallen  back  upon  the  united 
imperial  army  in  Saxony  and  threatened  to  form  a  junction 
with  the  Russians  then  stationed  in  his  vicinity  in  the  Mere. 
Frederick,  conscious  of  his  utter  inability  to  make  head 
against  this  overwhelming  force,  determined,  at  all  risks,  to 
bring  Daun  and  the  imperial  army  to  a  decisive  engagement 
before  their  junction  with  the  Russians,  and,  accordingly, 
attacked  them  at  Torgau.  Before  the  commencement  of  the 
action,  he  earnestly  addressed  his  officers  and  solemnly  pre- 
pared for  death.  Daun,  naturally  as  anxious  to  evade  an 
engagement  as  Frederick  was  to  hazard  one,  had,  as  at  Col- 
lin, taken  up  an  extremely  strong  position,  and  received  the 
Prussians  with  a  well-sustained  fire.  A  terrible  havoc  en- 
sued; the  battle  raged  with  various  fortune  during  the  whole 
of  the  day,  and,  notwithstanding  the  most  heroic  attempts, 
the  position  was  still  unearned  at  fall  of  night.  The  con- 
fusion  had   become  so  general   that  Prussian  fought  with 


1294  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

Prussian,  whole  regiments  had  disbanded,  and  the  king  was 
wounded,  when  Ziethen,  the  gallant  hussar  general,  who 
had  during  the  night  cut  his  way  through  the  Austrians, 
who  were  in  an  equal  state  of  disorder,  and  had  taken  the 
heights,  rushed  into  his  presence.  Ziethen  had  often  excited 
the  king's  ridicule  by  his  practice  of  brandishing  his  sabre 
over  his  head  in  sign  of  the  cross,  as  an  invocation  for  the 
aid  of  Heaven,  before  making  battle;  but  now,  deeply- 
moved,  he  embraced  his  deliverer,  whose  work  was  seen 
at  break  of  day.  The  Austrians  were  in  full  retreat.  This 
bloody  action,  by  which  the  Prussian  monarchy  was  saved, 
took  place  on  the  3d  of  November,  1760. 

George  II.,  king  of  England,  expired  during  this  year. 
His  grandson,  George  III. ,  the  son  of  Frederick,  Prince  of 
Wales,  who  had  preceded  his  father  to  the  tomb,  at  first  de- 
clared in  favor  of  Prussia,  and  fresh  subsidies  were  voted  to 
her  monarch  by  the  English  parliament,  which  at  the  same 
time  expressed  "its  deep  admiration  of  his  unshaken  forti- 
tude and  of  the  inexhaustible  resources  of  his  genius." 
Female  influence,  however,  ere  long  placed  Lord  Bute  in 
Pitt's  stead  at  the  helm  of  state,  and  the  subsidies  so  urgently 
demanded  by  Prussia  were  withdrawn.  The  duke  of  Bruns- 
wick was,  meanwhile,  again  victorious  at  Billinghausen  over 
the  French,  and  covered  the  king  on  that  side.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  junction  of  the  Austrians  with  the  Russians  was 
effected  in  1761;  the  allied  army  amounted  in  all  to  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty  thousand  men,  and  Frederick's  army,  solely 
consisting  of  fifty  thousand,  would  in  all  probability  have 
been  again  annihilated,  had  he  not  secured  himself  behind 
the  fortress  of  Schweidnitz,  in  the  strong  position  at  Bunzel- 
witz.  Butterlin,  the  Russian  general,  was  moreover  little 
inclined  to  come  to  an  engagement  on  account  of  the  illness 
of  the  empress  and  the  favor  with  which  Frederick  was  be- 
held by  the  successor  to  the  throne.  It  was  in  vain  that 
Laudon  exerted  all  the  powers  of  eloquence,  the  Russians 
remained  in  a  state  of  inactivity  and  finally  withdrew.  Lau- 
don avenged  himself  by  unexpectedly  taking  Schweidnitz 


THE    RISE    OF   PRUSSIA  1295 

under  the  eyes  of  the  king  by  a  clever  coup-de-main,  and 
had  not  a  heroic  Prussian  artilleryman  set  fire  to  a  powder 
magazine,  observing  as  he  did  so,  "All  of  ye  shall  not  get 
into  the  town!"  and  blown  himself  with  an  immense  num- 
ber of  Austrians  into  the  air,  he  would  have  made  himself 
master  of  this  important  stronghold  almost  without  losing  a 
man.      Frederick  retreated  upon  Breslau. 

The  empress,  Elisabeth,  expired  in  the  ensuing  year, 
1762,  and  was  succeeded  by  Peter  III.,  who  instantly  ranged 
himself  on  the  side  of  Prussia.  Six  months  afterward  he  was 
assassinated,  and  his  widow  seized  the  reins  of  government 
under  the  title  of  Catherine  II.  Frederick  was  on  the  eve  of 
giving  battle  to  the  Austrians  at  Reichenbach  in  Silesia  and 
the  Russians  under  Czernitscheff  were  under  his  command 
when  the  news  arrived  of  the  death  of  his  friend  and  of  the 
inimical  disposition  of  the  new  empress,  who  sent  Czernit- 
scheff instant  orders  to  abandon  the  Prussian  banner.  Such 
was,  however,  Frederick's  influence  over  the  Russian  gen- 
eral, that  he  preferred  hazarding  his  head  rather  than  aban- 
don the  king  at  this  critical  conjuncture,  and,  deferring  the 
publication  of  the  empress's  orders  for  three  days,  remained 
quietly  within  the  camp.  Frederick  meanwhile  was  not  idle, 
and  gained  a  complete  victory  over  the  Austrians,  the  21st 
of  July,  1762.  The  attempt  made  by  a  Silesian  nobleman, 
Baron  Warkotsch,  together  with  a  priest  named  Schmidt, 
secretly  to  carry  off  the  king  from  his  quarters  at  Strehlen, 
failed.  In  the  autumn,  Frederick  besieged  and  took  Schweid- 
nitz.  The  two  most  celebrated  French  engineers  put  their 
new  theories  into  practice  on  this  occasion;  Lefevre,  for  the 
Prussians  against  the  fortress;  Griboval,  for  the  Austrians 
engaged  in  its  defence.  Frederick's  good  fortune  was  shared 
by  Prince  Henry,  who  defeated  the  imperial  troops  at  Frei- 
burg in  Saxony,  and  by  Ferdinand  of  Brunswick,  who  gained 
several  petty  advantages  over  the  French,  defeating  Soubise 
at  Wilhelmsthal  and  the  Saxons  on  the  Lutterbach.  The 
spiritless  war  on  this  side  was  finally  terminated  during 
the  course  of  this  year,  1762,  by  a  peace  between  England 


1296  THE    HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

and  France.'  Golz  had  at  the  same  time  instigated  the 
Tartars  in  Southern  Russia  to  revolt,  and  was  on  the  point 
of  creating  a  diversion  with  fifty  thousand  of  them  in  Fred- 
erick's favor.  Frederick,  with  a  view  of  striking  the  empire 
with  terror,  also  despatched  General  Kleist  into  Franconia, 
with  a  flying  corps,  which  no  sooner  made  its  appearance  in 
Nuremberg*  and  Bamberg  than  the  whole  of  the  South  was 
seized  with  a  general  panic,  Charles,  duke  of  Wurtemberg, 
for  instance,  preparing  for  instant  flight  from  Stuttgard. 
Sturzebecher,  a  bold  cornet  of  the  Prussian  huzzars,  accom- 
panied by  a  trumpeter  and  by  five  and  twenty  men,  ad- 
vanced as  far  as  Rotenburg  on  the  Tauber,  where,  forcing 
his  way  through  the  city  gate,  he  demanded  a  contribution 
of  eighty  thousand  dollars  from  the  town  council.  The  citi- 
zens of  this  town,  which  had  once  so  heroically  opposed  the 
whole  of  Tilly's  forces,  were  chased  by  a  handful  of  huzzars 
into  the  Bockshorn,  and  were  actually  compelled  to  pay  a 
fine  of  forty  thousand  florins,  with  which  the  cornet  scoif- 
ingly  withdrew,  carrying  off  with  him  two  of  the  town- 
councillors  as  hostages.  So  deeply  had  the  citizens  of  the 
free  towns  of  the  empire  at  that  time  degenerated. 

Frederick's  opponents  at  length  perceived  the  folly  of 
carrying  on  war  without  the  remotest  prospect  of  success. 
The  necessary  funds  were,  moreover,  wanting.  France  was 
weary  of  sacrificing  herself  for  Austria.  Catherine  of  Rus- 
sia, who  had  views  upon  Poland  and  Turkey,  foresaw  that 
the  aid  of  Prussia  would  be  required  in  order  to  keep  Aus- 
tria in  check,  and  both  cleverly  and  quickly  entered  into  an 
understanding  with  her  late  opponent.  Austria  was,  conse- 
quently, also  compelled  to  succumb.  The  rest  of  the  allied 
powers  had  no  voice  in  the  matter.     Peace  was  concluded  at 

1  This  campaign  was  merely  a  succession  of  manoeuvres  and  skirmishes,  in 
which  Lukner  and  his  huzzars  chiefly  distinguished  themselves  against ,  the 
French,  whose  service  Lukner  afterward  entered.  He  had,  at  an  earlier  period, 
headed  the  Bavarians  against  Austria. 

*  Nuremberg  had  never  before  yielded.  Frederick  observed  on  this  occasion, 
"Kleist  has  snatched  the  maiden  wreath  from  the  gray  locks  of  that  ancient 
virgin." 


THE   RISE    OF   PRUSSIA  1297 

Hubertsburg,  one  of  the  royal  Saxon  residences,  February 
the  15th,  1763.  Frederick  retained  possession  of  the  whole 
of  his  dominions.  The  machinations  of  his  enemies  had  not 
only  been  completely  frustrated,  but  Prussia  had  issued  from 
the  seven  years'  war  with  redoubled  strength  and  glory;  she 
had  confirmed  her  power  by  her  victories,  had  rendered  her- 
self feared  and  respected,  and  had  raised  herself  from  her 
station  as  one  of  the  principal  potenates  of  Germany  on  a 
par  with  the  great  powers  of  Europe. 

CCXXXVII.    Frederick  Sanspareil 

The  Prussian  king,  who  well  deserved  his  sobriquet  of 
Sanspareil,  devoted  himself,  on  his  return  to  Sans  Souci,  to 
the  occupations  of  peace,  in  which  he  might  also  serve  as  a 
model  to  all  other  princes.  Everything  prospered  under  his 
fostering  care.  The  confidence  inspired  by  his  government 
attracted  numbers  of  foreigners  into  the  country,  where  he 
placed  waste  lands  in  a  state  of  cultivation,  built  numerous 
villages,  made  roads  and  canals,  and  promoted  agriculture 
and  industry.  Prussia  quickly  recovered  from  the  calami- 
ties of  war,  and  the  royal  exchequer  and  the  wealth  of  the 
country  increased  at  an  equal  ratio.  Among  his  economical 
measures,  the  monopolies  in  tobacco  and  coffee  are  alone 
reprehensible. 

The  cultivation  of  the  potato — against  which  there  ex- 
isted a  popular  prejudice — in  Prussia  and  afterward  through- 
out Germany  was  mainly  forwarded  by  him.  The  impor- 
tance of  this  root  as  an  article  of  food  had  been  strikingly 
proved  during  the  seven  years'  war.  In  Silesia — where 
its  cultivation  had  been  enforced  by  Count  Schlaberndorf, 
the  Prussian  minister — the  famine,  caused  by  the  failure  of 
the  crops  in  1770,  had  been,  notwithstanding  the  immense 
concourse  of  poor,  felt  with  far  less  severity  than  in  the 
neighboring  countries;  in  Saxony,  where  one  hundred  thou- 
sand, in  Bohemia,  where  one  hundred  and  eighty  thousand 
men  perished  of  hunger,  and  whence  twenty  thousand  per- 


1298  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

sons  migrated  to  Prussia,  the  land  of  potatoes.  The  new 
monopolies  or  regie  were  more  particularly  unpopular  on  ac- 
count of  the  persons  employed  in  their  administration  being 
brought  from  France  by  the  king,  who  thus  virtually  ex- 
posed the  brave  victors  of  Rossbach  to  the  chicanery  of  their 
conquered  foe. 

The  army  next  occupied  his  attention.  In  the  autumn 
and  spring  he  held  great  reviews  for  the  sake  of  practice, 
and  perfect  order  and  discipline  were  maintained  during  the 
whole  of  his  reign.  The  faults  in  the  internal  organization 
of  the  army  were  first  discovered  after  his  death.  Frederick, 
although  personally  a  patron  of  art  and  a  promoter  of  civili- 
zation, greatly  depreciated  the  progress  of  enlightenment  in 
Germany,  nor  did  he  perceive  that  the  bourgeoisie,  whom  he 
had,  on  his  accession  to  the  throne,  found  in  a  state  of  igno- 
rance and  discouragement,  had  gradually  risen  to  one  of 
great  moral  and  mental  refinement,  while  the  nobility,  whom, 
at  least  in  Prussia,  he  had  found,  during  his  earlier  years, 
simple  in  their  habits  and  fitted  for  the  duties  of  their  sta- 
tion, had,  as  gradually,  sunk  in  luxury  and  become  totally 
incapable  of  mental  exertion.  His  exclusive  nomination  of 
nobles  to  all  the  higher  posts  in  the  army  was  at  first  natu- 
ral, the  peasant  recruits  being  already  accustomed,  in  their 
native  provinces,  to  the  sway  of  the  nobility;  but  his  total 
exclusion,  at  a  later  period,  of  the  whole  of  the  citizen  class, 
was  productive  of  immense  evils  to  his  successor.  The  sys- 
tem of  flogging  was  another  abuse.  Severe  punishments 
had  formerly  been  found  nocessary  among  the  infantry  on 
account  of  the  inclination  of  the  homeless  mercenary  to  de- 
sert his  colors  or  to  plunder;  but  the  infliction  of  corporeal 
punishment  first  became  general  in  the  army  on  the  enrol- 
ment of  the  peasant  serfs,  when  the  system  of  flogging, 
prevalent  in  the  villages,  was  introduced  into  the  army. 
This  system,  consequently,  merely  prevailed  in  Prussia  and 
Austria,  Slavonian  provinces  long  sunk  in  the  deepest  slavery. 
Other  states  followed  their  example,  but  were  unable  to  carry 
this  system  into  effect  wherever  a  spark  of  honor  still  glowed 


THE   RISE   OF   PRUSSIA  1299 

in  the  bosoms  of  the  people. '  The  retention  of  the  unsuita- 
ble military  dress  introduced  by  his  father,  of  pigtails,  pow- 
dered hair,  tight  breeches,  etc.,  was  another  of  Frederick's 
caprices. 

The  simple  and  strict  administration  of  justice  continually 
occupied  the  attention  of  the  king.  The  Codex  Fridericianum 
formed  the  basis  of  the  provincial  law  of  Prussia,  which  was 
not,  however,  completed  until  after  his  death,  by  Carmer, 
1794.  The  injustice  enacted  in  other  countries  was  viewed 
by  him  with  deep  abhorrence,  and  never  was  his  anger  more 
highly  excited  than  when  he  imagined  that  his  name  had 
been  abused  for  the  purpose  of  passing  an  iniquitous  judg- 
ment. A  windmill,  not  far  from  Sans  Souci,  obstructed  the 
view,  but  the  miller  threatening  to  lay  a  complaint  against 
him  in  his  own  court  of  justice,  he  chose  rather  to  endure 
the  inconvenience  than  to  resort  to  violence.  Another  mill- 
er, Arnold,  charging  a  nobleman  with  having  diverted  the 
water  from  his  mill,  Frederick,  anxious  to  act  with  strict 
justice,  sent  a  confidential  officer  to  the  spot  to  investigate 
the  affair.  The  officer,  either  owing  to  negligence  or  to 
some  private  reason,  pronounced  in  favor  of  the  miller,  who 
was  actually  in  the  wrong,  and  the  king  instantly  deprived 
three  of  his  chief-justices  and  a  number  of  the  lower  officers 
of  the  law  of  their  appointments  and  detained  the  former  for 
some  time  in  prison.  Still,  notwithstanding  his  arbitrary 
and,  on  some  occasions,  cruel  decisions,  he  inspired  the  law 
officers  with  a  wholesome  fear,  and  by  the  commission  of  one 
injustice  often  obviated  that  of  many  others.  His  treatment 
of  Colonel  Trenck,  an  Austrian,  whom  he  detained  a  close 
prisoner  at  Magdeburg  for  eighteen  years,  made  much  noise. 
This  handsome  adventurer  had  secretly  carried  on  an  inter- 
course with  the  king's  sister,  had  mixed  himself  up  with  poli- 

1  Louis  XV.  attempted  to  introduce  the  Prussian  military  system,  and,  with, 
it,  that  of  flogging,  into  the  French  army,  but  the  soldiers  mutinied,  shot  the 
subalterns  who  had  ventured  to  use  the  cane,  aud  one  of  the  latter,  oil  being 
ordered  to  give  the  lash  to  one  of  the  privates,  instantly  ripped  up  his  own  belly. 
This  fact  is  related  by  Schubart,  at  that  time  one  of  the  brightest  ornaments  of 
Germany,  who  concludes  with  the  exclamation,  "What  a  disgrace  for  Germany !" 


1300  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

tics,  devised  intrigues,  and  a  barefaced  indiscretion  had  oc- 
casioned his  long  imprisonment,  whence  he  was  liberated  on 
Frederick's  death. — The  manner  in  which  the  king  answered 
all  the  cases  and  petitions  presented  to  him,  by  a  short  mar- 
ginal note,  was  extremely  characteristic,  his  remarks  and  de- 
cisions being  generally  just,  but  witty,  satirical,  often  cruel, 
and  always  badly  written,  on  account  of  his  imperfect  knowl- 
edge of  his  mother  tongue. 

He  was  equally  laconic  in  conversation  and  abrupt  in 
manner.  With  a  large  three-cornered  laced  hat  on  his  head, 
rather  stooping  shoulders,  a  threadbare  blue  uniform  with 
red  facings  and  broad  skirts,  a  long  pigtail  hanging  behind, 
the  front  of  his  waistcoat  sprinkled  with  snuff,  which  he  took 
in  enormous  quantities,  short  black  breeches  and  long  boots, 
his  sword  buckled  to  his  side  and  his  celebrated  crutch-cane 
in  his  hand,  he  inspired  all  whom  he  addressed  with  awe. 
No  one,  however,  possessed  in  a  higher  degree  the  art  of 
pleasing,  whenever  he  happened  to  be  surrounded  by  per- 
sons of  congenial  taste  and  pursuits,  or  that  of  acquiring 
popularity. ' 

Frederick  exercised  immense  influence  on  the  spirit  of  the 
times,  the  general  impulse  toward  enlightenment.  The  age 
had  indeed  need  of  assistance  in  its  attempts  to  repel  the 
mists  of  ignorance  and  superstition  by  which  it  was  obscured. 
The  pedantry  of  the  schools  had  already  partially  yielded  be- 
for  the  attacks  of  Thomasius,  who  had  been  the  first  to  rend 
asunder  the  veil  and  to  admit  the  light,  which,  under  Fred- 
erick's administration,   now   poured  freely  in  on  all  sides. 

1  Innumerable  anecdotes  are  related  of  him.  During  the  seven  years'  war, 
a  Croat  aiming  at  him  from  behind  a  bush,  he  looked  sternly  at  him,  shook  his 
cane  (which  he  carried  even  when  on  horseback)  at  him,  and  the  Croat  tied. — 
The  people  of  Potsdam  had  stuck  up  a  caricature  in  which  he  was  represented 
with  a  coffee-mill  in  his  lap,  at  the  street  corner;  he  saw  it  as  he  passed  along 
and  told  the  bystanders  to  hang  it  lower  down  and  they  would  see  it  with  greater 
convenience. — One  of  the  subalterns  of  his  guard,  being  too  poor  to  buy  a  watch, 
attached  a  bullet  to  his  chain  and  wore  it  in  his  pocket.  This  was  perceived  by 
the  king,  who  one  day  purposely  asked  him  what  time  it  was.  The  officer,  un- 
able to  evade  an  expose,  drew  forth  the  bullet,  saying  as  he  did  so,  "My  watch 
points  but  to  one  hour,  that  in  which  I  die  for  your  Majesty."  Frederick  in- 
stantly presented  him  with  his  own  watch,  set  in  brilliants. 


THE   RISE   OF  PRUSSIA  1301 

The  influence  of  the  French  philosophers  of  the  day  neces- 
sarily preponderated.  Fortunately,  they  were  not  all  as 
frivolous  as  Voltaire,  and  the  more  fervid  enthusiasm  of 
Rousseau,  the  clear  political  views  of  Montesquieu,  were 
far  better  suited  to  the  gravity  of  the  German.  Still,  not- 
withstanding the  influence  of  Frederick  the  Great,  Gallo- 
mania did  not  long  characterize  our  literature.  Gottsched 
at  Leipzig  attempted  its  establishment,  but  it  was  completely 
overthrown  by  Lessing  at  Wolfenbuttel,  and  to  it  succeeded 
Graecomania  and  Anglomania,  a  predilection  for  the  ancient 
authors  of  Greece  and  Rome,  first  tastefully  displayed  by 
Heyne  at  Gottingen,  and  for  the  liberal  and  manly  literature 
of  England,  with  which  a  closer  acquaintance  had  been 
formed  since  the  accession  of  the  house  of  Hanover  to  that 
throne.  The  patriotic  pride  of  Lessing,  the  study  of  the 
classics  and  of  English  literature,  served  as  a  guard  against 
French  exaggeration,  which,  nevertheless,  exercised  but  too 
powerful  an  influence  upon  the  German  character.  Voltaire 
first  taught  the  German  to  take  a  hasty  and  superficial  view 
of  religion,  and  Rousseau  first  enervated  his  honest  heart  by 
false  and  sickly  sentimentality.  During  the  first  stage  of 
his  progress  toward  the  enlightenment  he  so  much  needed, 
he  was  but  a  contemptible  and  ridiculous  caricature  of  his 
French  model. 

The  enlightenment  of  the  past  century,  about  which  so 
much  has  been  said  and  written,  demanded  a  religion  of  love 
and  toleration  (the  demand  of  the  first  Pietists,  who  after- 
ward became  noted  for  intolerance),  in  the  place  of  the  re- 
ligion of  intolerance  hitherto  inculcated  by  the  church,  the 
equality  of  all  confessions  of  faith  (as  established  in  North 
America),  the  conformity  of  the  dogmas  of  the  church  with 
the  demands  of  sound  human  reason  (rationalism),  or  the 
total  proscription  of  the  dogma  in  so  far  as  they  were  in- 
compatible with  what  it  pleased  the  philosophers  of  the  day 
to  consider  natural  and  reasonable  (natural  religion,  deism). 
The  result  of  these  demands  was  absolute  infidelity,  which 
rejected  every  religion  as  equally  false  and  even  denied  the 


1302  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

existence  of  a  deity  (atheism),  the  adoration  of  nature  and 
the  most  extravagant  sensuality  (materialism). 

The  beneficent  government  of  humane  sovereigns,  wise 
guardians  of  the  people,  was  demanded  instead  of  the  despot- 
ism that  had  hitherto  prevailed,  and  the  future  happiness  of 
the  human  race  was  declared  to  be  the  infallible  result  of 
this  blessed  change  in  the  administration.  On  the  separa- 
tion of  the  North  American  colonies  from  England,  their 
parent  country,  and  their  formation  into  a  republic,  repub- 
lican notions  began  to  spread;  they  were,  moreover,  greatly 
fostered  by  the  example  of  the  ancients,  whose  histories  were 
diligently  studied,  and  by  the  "contrat  social"  of  Rousseau, 
which  reproduced  the  ancient  German  political  principle  of 
a  constitution  based  upon  the  union  of  free  and  equal  mem- 
bers of  society  as  a  new  discovery.  At  first,  the  general 
demand  was  for  that  best  of  all  republics,  the  sovereignty 
of  virtue;  but,  by  degrees,  the  republic  became  a  matter  of 
speculation  for  vices  impatient  of  the  restraint  imposed  by 
laws. 

The  immorality  that,  like  a  pestilence,  had  spread  from 
France  and  infected  the  courts  and  the  higher  classes  in  Ger- 
many, took  shelter  beneath  the  new  doctrines  of  humanism. 
Open  profligacy  was,  it  is  true,  discouraged,  but  the  weak- 
nesses of  the  heart,  as  they  were  termed,  served  as  an  excuse 
for  the  infraction  of  the  Catholic  vow  of  celibacy  and  of  the 
strict  moral  tenets  of  the  Protestant  church.  The  tears  of 
the  sentimentalist  atoned  for  the  weakness  of  the  flesh.  An 
incredible  increase  in  the  production  and  study  of  romances 
naturally  followed.  The  unprincipled  sentimentality  of  the 
middle  classes  was  even  more  pernicious  in  effect  than  the 
open  profligacy  of  the  nobility  and  of  the  courts.  It  was 
owing  to  this  cause  alone  that  Germany,  at  the  outbreak  of 
the  French  Revolution,  at  a  time  that  called  for  energy  and 
for  the  exertion  of  every  manly  virtue,  contained  so  many 
cowards. 

Good  and  evil  advanced  hand  in  hand  as  enlightenment 
progressed.     Men,  confused  by  the  novelty  of  the  ideas  pro- 


THE   RISE   OF  PRUSSIA  1308 

pounded,  were  at  first  unable  to  discern  their  real  value. 
The  transition  from  ancient  to  modern  times  had,  however, 
become  necessary,  and  was  greatly  facilitated  by  the  toler- 
ance of  the  great  sovereign  of  Prussia,  who,  notwithstanding 
that,  by  his  predilection  for  French  philosophy  and  his  incli- 
nation toward  rationalism,  he  at  first  gave  a  false  bias  to  the 
moral  development  of  Germany,  greatly  accelerated  its  prog- 
ress. He  gave  his  subjects  full  liberty  to  believe,  think,  say, 
write,  and  publish  whatever  they  deemed  proper,  extended 
his  protection  to  those  who  sought  shelter  within  his  terri- 
tories from  the  persecution  of  the  priests,  and  enforced  uni- 
versal toleration.  On  one  occasion  alone,  one  that  escaped 
the  observation  of  the  sovereign,  did  the  censor,  Justi,  dare 
to  suppress  a  work,  the  "Letters  on  Literature,"  in  which 
his  own  dull  productions  were  severely  criticised.  The 
works  printed  in  Prussia  from  1740  to  1786  offer  a  con- 
vincing proof  of  the  unparalleled  liberality  of  this  absolute 
sovereign.  The  freedom  from  restriction  greatly  favored 
the  progress  of  German  literature,  but  still  more  so  the 
personal  indifference  of  the  king,  which  prevented  it  from 
becoming  servile.  How  insignificant  was  Eamler,  whom  he 
appointed  poet- laureate !  how  great  was  Lessing,  who  never 
paid  court  to  or  was  noticed  by  him! 

Frederick  was,  in  his  private  hours,  chiefly  surrounded 
by  foreigners:  Maupertius,  the  Marquis  d'Argens,  Alga- 
rotti,  Mitchel,  the  English  ambassador,  Marshal  Keith,  a 
Scotchman,  a  proscribed  partisan  of  the  exiled  Stuart,  such 
a  noble-hearted  man  that  Frederick  said  of  him,  "Le  bon 
Milord  me  force  de  croire  a"  la  vertu, "  General  Lentulus,  and 
the  notorious  De  la  Mettrie.'     He  earned  on  a  frequent  cor- 

1  Who  wrote  openly,  "that  there  is  no  God,  no  immortality,  that  man  is 
intended  to  follow  every  natural  impulse,  that  sensual  pleasure  is  his  only  aim 
in  life,  that  virtue  is  a  ridiculous  dream  destructive  of  enjoyment,  and  that  death 
is  the  end  of  all  things."  His  depraved  course  of  life  was  consistent  with  his 
principles.  Frederick,  nevertheless,  appointed  him  his  lecturer.  Mitchel  relates 
that  Frederick  always  spoke  of  Voltaire  as  a  rogue,  although  he  continued  to 
correspond  with  him.  This  taste  may,  perhaps,  be  physically  accounted  for; 
Zimmermann  says  that  during  the  latter  part  of  Frederick's  life  he  could  not 
touch  a  dish  without  first  seasoning  it  with  immense  quantities  of  Cayenne. 


1304  THE   HISTORY  OF   GERMANY 

respondenee  with  Voltaire'  and  D'Alembert,  the  latter  of 
whom  he  appointed  president  of  the  Royal  Academy  of  Ber- 
lin. Raynal  and  Rousseau,  two  of  the  noblest  of  the  French 
writers,  took  refuge  within  his  states,  one  at  Berlin,  the  other 
at  Neufchatel,  from  the  persecution  to  which  the  freedom  of 
their  opinions  had  exposed  them.  Frederick  was  himself  an 
author  of  no  mean  talent;  in  his  youth  he  wrote  an  "  Anti- 
machiavel,"  in  which  he  recommended  to  princes  a  moral 
policy,  never  followed  by  himself,  and  several  poems;  at  a 
later  period,  the  "History  of  his  Own  Times";  that  of  the 
"Seven  Years'  War"  ;  "Considerations,  Financial  and  Polit- 
ical, on  the  State  of  Europe";  "Memoirs  of  the  House  of 
Brandenburg";  besides  numerous  spirited  letters,  which 
were  collected  after  his  death. 

The  fall  of  the  Jesuits  was  the  first  great  result  of  the 
advance  of  enlightenment.  One  extreme  is  ever  productive 
of  another.  The  dissolution  of  these  guardians  of  ignorance 
was  perhaps  alone  rendered  possible  by  the  existence  of  an 
equal  degree  of  exaggeration  on  the  side  of  their  opponents. 
The  policy  of  the  times,  moreover,  favored  the  general  in- 
clination. The  princes  greedily  grasped  at  the  church  prop- 
erty that  had  escaped  the  general  plunder  during  the  Ref- 
ormation. In  France,  Spain,  and  Portugal,  the  ancient 
bulwarks  of  Catholicism,  ministers  rose  to  office  who,  con- 
vinced of  the  excellence  of  Frederick's  policy,  kept  pace  with 
their  times,  and  followed  as  zealously  in  his  footsteps  as  the 
German  princes  formerly  had  in  those  of  Louis  XIV.  In 
Austria,  the  Archduke  Joseph,  the  eccentric  son  of  Maria 
Theresa,  glowed  for  a  Utopia  of  liberty  and  justice,  and 
Kaunitz  persuaded  the  otherwise  bigoted  empress  to  pursue 
the  old  Grhibelline  policy  by  which  the  pope  was  rendered 
subordinate  to  the  head  of  the  empire.    Pope  Clement  XIV., 

1  Voltaire  compared  Frederick  with  the  emperor  Julian  the  Apostate,  who 
abolished  Christianity  and  restored  Paganism.  He  generally  concluded  his  con- 
fidential letters  with  the  words  "ecrasez  l'infame, "  meaning  Christianity.  On 
the  24th  of  July,  1763,  he  wrote  to  D'Alembert  that  surely  five  or  six  men  of 
genius  like  them  could  overthrow  a  religion  founded  by  twelve  beggars.  He 
greatly  complained  of  Frederick's  want  of  energy  in  the  cause. 


THE   RISE   OF  PRUSSIA  1305 

a  man  of  great  enlightenment,  also  filled  St.  Peter's  chair  at 
that  time,  and  hence  it  happened  that  the  notorious  Society 
of  Jesus  was  solemnly  dissolved  in  all  Catholic  countries  by 
a  papal  bull  in  1773.  The  unfortunate  pope  was  instantly 
poisoned  by  the  revengeful  Jesuits.  Frederick,  true  to  his 
principle  of  universal  toleration1  and  desirous  of  displaying 
his  independence,2  permitted  them  to  retain  their  former 
footing  in  Catholic  Silesia.  On  the  dissolution  of  the  So- 
ciety, the  most  scandalous  deeds  were  brought  to  light.  The 
attention  of  the  public  was  taken  up  with  judicial  proceed- 
ings and  satirical  writings.  A  scandalous  lawsuit,  that  of 
Father  Marcellus  at  Augsburg,  for  unnatural  crimes  com- 
mitted in  the  school  under  the  control  of  the  Jesuits,  the 
opening  of  the  prisons  of  the  Society  at  Munich,  where  twelve 
skeletons  were  discovered  attached  to  chains,  created  the 
greatest  noise.  The  history  of  the  Society,  and  the  prin- 
ciples on  which  it  was  based,  were  now  thoroughly  investi- 
gated and  criticised.  It  is,  however,  probable  that  some  of 
the  governments  would  not  have  so  readily  assented  to  its 
dissolution  but  for  the  extraordinary  wealth  it  possessed. 
The  courts  were  in  want  of  money,  and,  on  this  occasion, 
made  a  truly  royal  booty,  of  which  but  a  small  portion  was 
set  aside  for  educational  purposes.  The  emperor  Joseph 
appears  to  have  had  this  booty  very  much  in  view.  His 
mother,  Maria  Theresa,  who,  in  1748,  had,  in  her  right  as 
queen  of  Hungary,  assumed  the  title  of  Apostolical  Majesty, 
and,  in  1752,  had  driven  four  thousand  Protestants  out  of 
Styria,  was  merely  induced  to  give  her  consent  to  the  disso- 
lution of  the  Society  on  moral  grounds.  A  written  docu- 
ment, containing  the  substance  of  her  confessions  to  her 
Jesuit   confessor,  was  sent  to  her  from  Madrid,  a  proof  of 

1  He  often  said,  "In  my  states  every  one  can  go  his  own  way  to  heaven." 
3  The  Jesuits  were  so  delighted  that  they  spread  a  report  that  the  king  was 
on  the  point  of  turning  Catholic.  The  ex-Jesuit  Domelmaier  declared  from  the 
pulpit  at  Slraubing  that  the  king's  coach- horses  had  fallen  on  their  knees  before 
the  pyx.  Shortly  afterward,  on  Frederick's  si'u.g  with  Bavaria  against  Austria, 
as  Dohm  relatos,  his  picture  was  seen  in  a  Bavarian  village  at  the  side  of  that 
of  a  tmul,  with  a  lamp  beneath  it. 

Germany.     Vol.  III.— 17 


1305  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

perfidy  by  which  she  was  first  convinced  of  the  immorality, 
according  to  their  statutes,  legally  practiced  by  the  members 
of  the  Society. 

At  the  very  time  that  Germany  was  delivered  from  the 
curse  of  Jesuitism,  the  crime,  termed  by  way  of  distinction 
the  crime  of  the  age,  was  committed  against  Poland,  and 
clearly  indicates  the  moral  principle  by  which  the  statesmen 
of  that  time  were  guided.  Virtue  was  never  the  object  of 
their  policy,  but  simply  a  means  for  the  success  of  some  po- 
litical scheme.  "Bo  not  talk  to  me  of  magnanimity,"  said 
Frederick,  "a  prince  can  only  study  his  interest."  Poland, 
like  Germany,  owed  the  loss  of  her  unity  to  her  aristocracy; 
but  the  Waiwodes  and  Starosts,  instead  of  founding  petty 
states,  like  the  German  dukes  and  counts,  and  of  allowing 
the  formation  of  a  civic  class,  became  utterly  ungovernable, 
and,  too  jealous  to  place  the  crown  on  the  head  of  one  of 
their  own  number,  continued,  from  one  generation  to  an- 
other, to  elect  a  foreigner  for  their  king.  As  long  as  Poland 
still  maintained  a  shadow  of  her  ancient  dignity,  her  choice 
was  free  and  unbiased  and  ever  fell  upon  some  weak  prince, 
as,  for  instance,  the  Elector  of  Saxony;  but,  as  her  internal 
dissensions  became  more  frequent,  she  allowed  her  potent 
neighbor  to  impose  a  sovereign  upon  her.  On  the  demise  of 
Augustus  III ,  in  1763,  Catherine  II.  of  Russia  effected 
the  election  of  one  of  her  numerous  paramours,  the  hand- 
some Stanislaus  Poniatowski,  a  Pole  by  birth  and  her  servile 
tool.  A  foreboding  of  the  dreadful  doom  awaiting  their 
country  was  roused  by  this  stroke  of  Russian  policy  in  the 
bosom  of  some  patriotic  Poles,  who  confederated  for  the  pur- 
pose of  dethroning  the  favorite  of  the  foreign  autocrat. 
Catherine,  however,  sent  one  of  her  armies  into  the  wretched 
country,  which  was  by  her  orders,  by  the  orders  of  the  self- 
termed  female  philosopher,  laid  waste  with  most  inhuman 
barbarity.  Cannibals  could  not  have  perpetrated  more  oold- 
blooded  acts  of  cruelty  than  the  Russians,  whom  the  noble 
and  gallant  Pulawski  vainly  opposed  in  1769.  Catherine, 
fearing  lesu  the  Turks  might  aid  the  unfortunate  Poles, 


THE   RISE   OF   PRUSSIA  1307 

attacked  them  also,  and  victoriously  extended  her  sway  to 
the  South. 

The  whole  of  the  states  of  Europe,  although  threatened 
by  the  increasing  power  of  Russia,  remained  inactive.  Eng- 
land was  occupied  with  her  colonies,  France  with  her  mis- 
tresses and  fetes,  Sweden  was  powerless.  Austria  and 
Prussia,  the  most  imminently  threatened,  might,  if  united, 
have  easily  protected  Poland,  and  have  hindered  the  advance 
of  Russia  toward  the  Black  Sea,  but  they  were  filled  with 
mutual  distrust.  In  1769,  Frederick  II.  and  Joseph  held  a 
remarkable  conference  at  Neisse,  in  Silesia,  when  an  attempt 
was  made  to  place  German  policy  on  a  wider  basis.  Who 
could  withstand,  was  it  said,  a  coalition  between  all  the 
powers  of  Germany?  "I  think,"  said  Frederick  the  Great, 
"that  we  Germans  have  long  enough  spilled  German  blood; 
it  is  a  pity  that  we  cannot  come  to  a  better  understanding." 
Joseph  lamented  the  unpatriotic  alliance  between  Austria 
and  France,  and  even  Prince  Kaunitz,  the  propounder  of 
that  alliance,  declared  that  the  cession  of  Lorraine  to  France 
was  a  political  blunder  that  never  could  have  taken  place 
had  he  been  in  office  at  that  period.  And  yet,  in  despite  of 
these  declarations,  the  sovereigns  came  to  no  understanding; 
nor  was  a  second  conference,  held  in  the  ensuing  year  at 
Mahrisch-Neustadt,  notwithstanding  the  fine  protestations 
reiterated  on  this  occasion,  more  effective.1  The  want  of 
concord  was  entirely  owing  to  Frederick's  disbelief  in  the 
sincerity  of  Austria.  Austria  had  already  bestowed  the 
hand  of  an  archduchess  on  the  king  of  Poland,  and  had 
tendered  her  aid  to  the  overwhelming  Catholic  party  among 
the  Polish  nobility.  Had  Prussia  united  with  Austria  for 
the  rescue  of  Poland,  the  influence  of  Russia  would,  it  is 

1  Frederick,  on  seeing  Laudon,  whom  he  had  formerly  despised  on  account 
of  his  ugliness,  and  who  had  bitterly  enough  avenged  the  insult,  among  Joseph's 
suite,  took  him  by  the  arm  and  placed  him  next  to  him  at  table — "Sit  down  here, 
Bit  down  here,  I  would  rather  have  you  at  my  side  than  opposite  to  me."  At 
Neustadt,  Frederick  is  said  to  have  observed  to  the  emperor,  while  reviewing 
the  assembled  troops,  "The  most  extraordinary  thing  in  our  mtemow  is  that  all 
iUcoti  thousands  3hould  fear  us  two!" 


1308  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

true,  have  been  weakened,  while  that  of  Austria  would  have 
been  thereby  strengthened,  without  her  having  gained  the 
slightest  advantage.  These  grounds  determined  Frederick 
not  only  to  leave  Kussia  unopposed,  but  even  to  make  use  of 
her  against  Austria,  and  his  brother,  Henry,  whom  he  sent 
to  St.  Petersburg,  accordingly,  carried  on  negotiations  to 
this  intent.  The  Austrians,  upon  this,  held  a  council  of  war, 
in  which  the  question,  whether  it  was  advisable  to  declare 
war  with  Eussia  in  case  Prussia  sided  against  them  with 
Eussia,  was  agitated.  The  question  was  negatived  in 
1771,  and,  from  this  moment,  the  partition  of  Poland  was 
determined  upon.  Austria,  no  longer  desirous  of  driving 
the  Russians  out  of  Poland,  was  merely  intent  upon  sharing 
the  booty,  and,  abandoning  her  ancient  character  as  the  pro- 
tectress of  that  ill- fated  country,  was  the  first  to  make  the 
attack  by  formally  taking  possession  of  the  Zips,  to  which 
she  asserted  her  ancient  right,  before  Eussia,  notwithstand- 
ing her  arbitrary  rule  in  Poland,  had  formally  declared  the 
incorporation  of  the  Polish  provinces  with  the  Russian  em- 
pire. Prussia,  meanwhile,  cleverly  made  use  of  the  recip- 
rocal jealousy  between  Eussia  and  Austria  to  secure  her 
portion  of  the  booty.  The  three  powers  bargained  with  each 
other  for  Poland  like  merchants  over  a  bale  of  goods,  and 
Eussia,  the  originator  of  the  whole  scheme  and  the  first 
possessor  of  the  country,  retained  by  far  the  largest  share. ' 
The  negotiations  were  brought  to  a  close,  August  5,  1773 ; 
the  Austrians  and  Prussians  entered  Poland,  of  which  the 
Eussians  had  already  taken  possession,  and  proclaimed  her 
partition,  "in  the  name  of  the  indivisible  Trinity,"  to  which 
Catherine  more  particularly  added,  "for  the  restoration  of 
the  prosperity  of  Poland."  Eussia  seized  almost  the  whole 
of  Lithuania;  Austria,  Galicia;  Prussia,  the  province  of  the 
Lower  Vistula,  under  the  name  of  Western  Prussia.  The 
rest  of  Poland  was  bestowed  upon  the  wretched  king,  Stanis- 

1  Gregory  Orlow,  Catherine's  favorite,  was  of  opinion  that  the  Russian  rain  • 
isters,  who  had  concurred  in  the  partition,  deserved  to  be  deprived  of  their  heads 
for  not  having  retained  the  whole  of  Poland  for  his  mistresa. 


THE   RISE   OF  PRUSSIA  1309 

iaus,  under  the  name  of  the  republic  of  Poland,  on  which  the 
laws  prescribed  by  the  three  powers  were  imposed,  and  which 
was  so  constituted  as  to  render  unity  for  the  future  imprac- 
ticable in  Poland  and  to  favor  the  wildest  anarchy.  Every 
noble  had  the  liberum  veto,  that  is,  the  power  of  annihilat- 
ing the  decisions  of  the  diet  by  his  single  vote.  With  a  con- 
stitution of  this  nature,  Poland  naturally  sank  ever  deeper 
into  the  abyss  of  ruin. 

Two  voices  alone  throughout  Germany  ventured  to  pro- 
test against  this  political  murder.  Maria  Theresa  had  in 
her  old  age  committed  the  control  of  foreign  affairs  to  her 
son  Joseph  and  to  Kaunitz,  but  she  no  sooner  learned  the 
partition  of  Poland  than  she  thus  addressed  the  latter: 
"When  the  whole  of  my  possessions  were  disputed  and  I  no 
longer  knew  where  to  sit  down  in  peace,  I  placed  my  trust 
in  the  justice  of  my  cause  and  in  the  aid  of  Heaven.  But, 
in  this  affair,  where  injured  right  not  only  openly  cries  for 
vengeance  against  us,  but  in  which  all  justice  and  sound 
reason  are  opposed  to  us,  I  must  affirm  that  never  through- 
out the  whole  course  of  my  existence  have  I  been  so  pained, 
and  that  I  am  ashamed  to  be  seen.  Let  the  prince  reflect 
what  an  example  we  offer  to  the  whole  world  by  hazarding 
our  honor  and  reputation  for  the  sake  of  a  miserable  bit  of 
Poland.  I  see  plainly  that  I  am  alone  and  am  no  longer 
en  vigueur,  and  I  therefore  let  the  matter,  though  not  with- 
out the  greatest  sorrow,  take  its  own  course."  She  signed 
her  name  with  these  words,  "Placet,  as  so  many  and  learned 
men  desire  it;  but  when  I  have  been  long  dead,  the  conse- 
quences of  this  violation  of  all  that  until  now  has  been 
deemed  holy  and  just  will  be  experienced."  The  other  voice 
was  that  of  the  Swabian,  Schubart,  who  ventured,  even  at 
that  period,  to  lament  the  fate  of  "Poland  pale  with  woe"  in 
one  of  his  finest  poems. 

Prussia  had,  moreover,  come  off  the  worst  in  the  parti- 
tion, the  other  powers  refusing  at  any  price  to  permit  her 
occupation  of  Dantzig.  The  object  of  this  refusal  on  the 
part  of  Russia  was  to  prevent  the  whole  commerce  of  Poland 


1310  THE    HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

from  falling  into  the  hands  of  Prussia.  Frederick  revenged 
himself  by  the  seizure  of  Neufahrwasser,  the  only  navigable 
entrance  into  the  harbor  of  Dantzig,  and  by  the  imposition 
of  oppressive  dues. 

CCXXXVIII.  Joseph  the  Second 

This  emperor,  who  so  zealously  aided  in  the  annihilation 
of  an  innocent  nation  and  thus  repaid  John  Sobieski's  noble 
devotion  with  most  unexampled  ingratitude  to  his  descend- 
ants, who  evinced  such  utter  want  of  feeling  in  his  foreign 
policy,  was,  to  the  astonishment  of  the  whole  world,  in  his 
own  dominions,  the  greatest  enthusiast  for  popular  liberty 
and  the  greatest  promoter  of  national  prosperity  that  ever 
sat  upon  a  throne.  On  the  death  of  his  father,  Francis  I., 
in  1765,'  he  became  co-regent  with  his  mother,  and,  al- 
though at  first  merely  intrusted  with  the  war  administra- 
tion, ere  long  interfered  in  every  state  affair,  in  which  he 
was  especially  supported  by  the  prime  minister,  Kaunitz, 
who,  while  apparently  siding  with  him  against  the  caprice 
or  too  conscientious  scruples  of  his  mother,  rendered  him  his 
tool.  The  contradiction  apparent  in  Joseph's  conduct,  the 
intermixture  of  so  much  injustice  with  his  most  zealous  en- 
deavors to  do  right,  are  simply  explained  by  the  influence  of 
Kaunitz,  who,  like  an  evil  spirit,  ever  attended  him. 

For  the  better  confirmation  of  the  unnatural  alliance  be- 


1  Frederick  II.  writes  of  this  puppet  sovereign — "The  emperor,  not  daring 
to  interfere  in  state  matters,  amused  himself  with  the  transaction  of  mercantile 
business.  He  laid  by  large  sums  from  his  Tuscan  revenues  in  order  to  speculate 
in  trade.  He  always  retained  alchemists  in  his  service  engaged  in  the  search 
for  the  philosopher's  stone,  and  he  attempted  by  means  of  burning-glasses  to 
dissolve  several  small  diamonds  into  one  large  one.  He  established  manufact- 
ures, lent  money  on  mortgages,  and  undertook  to  furnish  the  whole  of  the  im- 
perial army  with  uniforms,  arms,  horses,  and  liveries.  In  partnership  with  a 
certain  Count  Bolza  and  a  tradesman  named  Schimmelmann,  he  farmed  the  Saxon 
customs,  and,  in  1756,  even  supplied  tbe  Prussian  army  with  forage  and  flour. 
Although  his  consort  passionately  loved  him  and  was  a  pattern  of  conjugal  ten- 
derness, she  bore  his  ever-recurring  infidelities  without  a  murmur.  The  day  be- 
fore his  death,  he  presented  his  mistress,  the  Princess  von  Auersberg,  with  a 
bill  for  two  hundred  thousand  florins.  The  validity  of  a  gif*  ^f  this  description 
was  questioned,  but  Maria  Theresa  ordered  the  bill  to  be  duly  honored. " 


THE   RISE   OF  PRUSSIA  1311 

tween  Austria  and  France,  Maria  Antonia  (named  by  the 
French,  Marie  Antoinette),  Maria  Theresa's  lovely  and 
accomplished  daughter,  was  wedded,  in  1770,  to  the  Dau- 
phin, afterward  the  unfortunate  Louis  XVI.  She  was  re- 
ceived at  Strasburg  by  the  gay  bishop,  Cardinal  Rohan,  with 
the  words,  "The  union  of  Bourbon  with  Habsburg  must  re- 
store the  golden  age. ' '  Seven  hundred  and  twelve  people 
were  crushed  to  death  during  the  wedding  festivities  at  Paris. 

The  emperor  Joseph,  during  his  mother's  lifetime,  estab- 
lished beneficial  laws,  abolished  the  use  of  torture,  in  1774, 
and,  by  the  publication  of  an  Urbarium,  sought  more  par- 
ticularly to  improve  the  condition  of  the  peasantry.  Thfe 
collection  of  the  taxes  and  the  lower  jurisdiction  were  to 
be  undertaken  by  the  state  whenever  the  noble  was  unable 
to  defray  the  expenses  of  the  administration,  and  villages, 
consisting  of  more  than  one  hundred  and  twenty  houses, 
were  raised  to  the  importance  of  country  towns  and  were 
granted  several  immunities.  The  government  also  entered 
into  negotiation  with  the  nobility  on  account  of  the  gradually 
increasing  pressure  of  socage- service.  The  cautious  nobles, 
however,  declared  to  the  empress  that  they  would  not  vol- 
untarily yield,  but  would  submit  were  arbitrary  measures 
resorted  to.  These  Maria  Theresa  refused  to  adopt,  and  the 
Bohemian  peasantry,  to  whom  hopes  of  redress  had  been 
held  out,  rose  in  open  insurrection,  which  was  quelled  by 
force,  in  1775.  Their  leader,  Joseph  Czerny,  and  three 
others  were  hanged,  one  in  each  of  the  four  quarters  of  the 
city  of  Prague. 

Joseph  was,  shortly  after  this  occurrence,  again  seized 
with  a  strong  desii  s  to  extend  his  dominions.  On  the  death 
of  Maximilian  Joseph,  elector  of  Bavaria,  without  issue,  in 
1777,  the  next  heir,  the  weak  and  licentious  Charles  Theo- 
dore, of  the  collateral  branch  of  the  Pfalz,  evincing  a  disin- 
clination to  Bavaria  on  account  of  his  predilection  for  his 
natural  children  and  for  his  residence,  Mannheim,  which  he 
had  greatly  beautified,  Joseph  persuaded  him  to  cede  Lower 
Bavaria  to  Austria.      This  cession  was,   however,  viewed 


1312  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

with  equal  displeasure  by  the  next  of  kin,  Charles,  duke  of 
Pfalz-Zweibrucken,  and  by  the  Bavarians,  who  still  retained 
their  ancient  hatred  of  Austria.  Maria  Anna,  the  talented 
widow  of  Duke  Clement,  Charles  Theodore's  sister-in-law, 
placed  herself  at  the  head  of  the  Bavarians,  supported  by 
Count  Gortz,  whom  Frederick  II.,  who  sought  at  every 
hazard  to  prevent  the  aggrandizement  of  Austria,  had  sent 
to  her  aid.  The  opposing  armies  took  the  field,  but  no  de- 
cisive engagement  was  fought,  and  this  war  was  jestingly 
termed  the  potato  war,  the  soldiers  being  chiefly  engaged  in 
devouring  potatoes  within  the  camps.  Frederick  the  Great 
said  that  the  war  had  brought  him  more  hay  than  laurels, 
as  it  almost  entirely  consisted  in  foraging  excursions.  Fer- 
dinand, the  hereditary  prince  of  Brunswick,  maintained 
himself  in  a  strong  position  at  Troppau.  Wurmser,  the 
imperial  general,  surprised  the  enemy  at  Habelschwert  and 
gained  a  trifling  advantage.  Neither  side  was  in  earnest; 
Frederick  was  old  and  sickly — Maria  Theresa  so  timid  that 
she  secretly  negotiated  with  Frederick  behind  her  son's  back 
by  means  of  Baron  Thugut,  who  had  formerly  been  an  or- 
phan lad.  France  was  in  a  state  of  indecision.  Austria  is 
said  to  have  promised  to  cede  to  her  a  part  of  the  Pfalz, 
which  Louis  XVI. ,  on  the  contrary,  aided  with  a  subsidy ; 
but  however  that  may  be,  France  did  not  come  openly  for- 
ward. Russia,  on  the  other  hand,  threatened  Austria,  who 
at  length  consented,  by  the  treat}*-  concluded  at  Teschen, 
in  1779,  to  accept  the  province  of  the  Inn  and  to  relinquish 
the  rest  of  Bavaria. 

Maria  Theresa  expired  in  1780. '     Joseph  II.  no  sooner 
became  sole  sovereign  than  he  began  a  multitude  of  reforms. 

1  She  was  remarkably  beautiful  in  her  youth,  but  later  m  life  became  ex- 
tremely corpulent  and  was  disfigured  by  the  smallpox.  She  retained  her  live- 
liness of  disposition  to  the  last.  With  the  same  spirit  as  when  at  Frankfort, 
beaming  with  delight,  she  stepped  upon  the  balcony  and  was  the  first  to  cry 
"Vivat"  at  the  moment  of  the  coronation  of  her  husband,  did  she  in  the  Bourg 
theatre  at  Vienna,  on  receiving  the  news  of  the  birth  of  her  first  grandson,  after- 
ward the  emperor  Francis  II.,  rise  from  her  seat  and  call  out  joyfully,  in  the 
Viennese  dialect,  to  the  parterre,  "der  Leopold  hot  an  Buabn!"  "Leopold  has 
*  boy!" 


THE   RISE    OF   PRUSSIA  1813 

With  neadlong  enthusiasm,  he  at  once  attempted  to  uproot 
every  ancient  abuse  and  to  force  upon  his  subjects  liberty 
and  enlightenment,  for  which  they  were  totally  unfitted. 
Kegardless  of  the  power  of  hereditary  prejudice,  he  arbitra- 
rily upset  every  existing  institution,  in  the  conviction  of  pro- 
moting the  real  welfare  of  his  subjects.  His  principal  attack 
was  directed  against  the  hierarchy.  On  the  assassination  of 
the  unfortunate  pope,  Clement  VII.,  by  the  Jesuits,  Pius 
VI.,  a  handsome  and  rather  weak-headed  man,  well  fitted 
for  performing  a  part  in  church  exhibitions,  and  a  tool  of 
the  ex-Jesuits,  was  placed  on  the  pontifical  throne.  Joseph 
was  by  chance  at  Eome  during  his  election,  on  which  he 
exercised  no  influence,  although  the  Eomans  enthusiasti- 
cally greeted  him  as  their  emperor  (1774).  Pius  instantly 
checked  every  attempt  at  reform,  evinced  great  zeal  in  hold- 
ing church  festivals,  processions,  and  other  spectacles,  in 
which  he  could  show  off  his  handsome  person,  and  did  his 
utmost  to  displease  the  emperor.  He  even  recognized  Fred- 
erick the  Great  as  king  of  Prussia,  on  account  of  the  pro- 
tection accorded  by  him  to  the  Jesuits.  Joseph,  however, 
treated  him  with  contempt,  and  openly  showed  his  independ- 
ence of  the  pontifical  chair  by  declaring  the  papal  bull  invalid 
throughout  his  states  unless  warranted  by  the  placet  regium. 
He  completely  abolished  the  begging  orders  and  closed  six 
hundred  and  twenty-four  monasteries;  he  also  placed  the 
more  ancient  monastic  orders  under  the  superintendence  of 
the  bishops,  and  finally  published  an  edict  of  toleration,  by 
which  the  free  exercise  of  religion  was  granted  to  all,'  except 
to  the  Deists  (who  believed  in  one  God  according  to  rational 
ideas,  not  according  to  revelation),  whom  he  condemned  to 
receive  five-and-twenty  strokes,  the  number  sacred  to  the 

1  In  the  Styrian  mountains,  whole  Tillages  suddenly  confessed  the  Lutheran 
faith  thoy  had  for  a  century  past  professed  in  secret.  In  1793,  there  were  no 
fewer  than  twenty-two  thousand  Protestants  in  Carinthia.  Many  of  the  communes 
at  first  suspected  the  edict  of  toleration  of  being  another  crafty  method  of  in- 
snaring  them,  by  encouraging  them  to  confess  their  real  faith  for  the  purpose  of 
destroying  them,  and  it  was  not  without  difficulty  that  they  became  convinced 
of  the  emperor's  sincerity. — Travels  Into  the  Interior  of  Germany,  1798. 


1314  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

Austrian  bastinado.  He  also  emancipated  the  Jews.  The 
German  hymns  of  the  ex-Jesuit,  Denis,  were  introduced  into 
the  Catholic  churches.  Hieronymus,  archbishop  of  Salzburg, 
and  the  bishops  of  Laibach  and  Konigsgreetz  supported  the 
emperor;  but  Cardinal  Migazzi, '  archbishop  of  Vienna,  and 
Cardinal  Bathyany,  archbishop  of  Gran,  ranged  themselves 
beneath  the  papal  banner.  Pius  VI.,  terrified  at  these  nu- 
merous innovations,  crossed  the  Alps  in  person  to  Vienna, 
in  1782,  for  the  purpose  of  moderating  the  emperor's  zeal. 
His  path  was  lined  with  thousands,  who  on  their  knees  re- 
ceived his  blessing.  He  was,  nevertheless,  rendered  bitterly 
sensible  of  the  inopportunity  of  his  visit  by  the  emperor  and 
by  Kaunitz.  The  emperor  did  not  honor  the  great  mass  per- 
formed by  him  with  his  presence.  No  one  was  allowed  to 
speak  with  him  without  special  permission  from  the  emperor, 
and,  in  order  to  guard  against  secret  visits,  every  entrance 
to  his  dwelling  was  walled  up,  with  the  exception  of  one 
which  was  strictly  watched.  Whenever  the  pope  attempted 
to  discuss  business  matters  with  the  emperor,  the  latter  de- 
clared that  he  understood  nothing  about  them,  must  first 
consult  his  council,  and  requested  that  the  affair  might  be 
conducted  in  writing.  Kaunitz,  instead  of  kissing  the  hand 
extended  to  him  by  the  pope,  shook  it  heartily;  he  also  neg- 
lected to  visit  him,  and,  on  the  pope's  paying  him  a  visit 
under  pretext  of  seeing  his  pictures,  received  him  in  a  light 
robe-de-chambre.  The  pope,  after  spending  four  weeks  with- 
out effecting  anything,  at  length  found  himself  constrained 
to  depart.  The  emperor  accompanied  him  as  far  as  Maria- 
bronn,  and  two  hours  afterward  ordered  that  monastery  to 
be  closed  in  order  to  show  how  little  the  pope  had  influenced 
him. 


1  Joseph's  want  of  tact  was  never  more  truly  displayed  than  in  his  treatment 
of  Migazzi.  The  Jansenist  priest,  Blaarer,  of  Brunn,  becoming  an  object  of  his 
persecution,  Joseph  summoned  Blaarer  to  Vienna  and  made  him  superintendent 
of  the  seminary  of  priests,  a  post  hitherto  held  by  Migazzi.  On  the  arrival  of 
the  pope  at  Vienna,  Migazzi  was  compelled  to  quit  the  city  and  to  pay  two  thou- 
sand seven  hundred  florins  to  a  house  of  correction  for  having  carried  on  an 
illegal  correspondence  with  him. 


THE   RISE   OF   PRUSSIA  1315 

The  people  and  the  clergy  were,  however,  dazzled  by 
the  appearance  of  the  holy  father,  and  Joseph,  fearful  of 
irritating  them  too  greatly,  in  reality  put  a  transient  stop  to 
his  reforms.  The  pope  passed  through  Munich,  where  he 
was  received  with  every  demonstration  of  respect  by  Charles 
Theodore,  and  by  Augsburg1  through  the  Tyrol,  where  a 
monument,  on  the  highroad  near  Innsbruck,  tells  to  this 
day  of  the  enthusiasm  with  which  his  presence  inspired 
the  mountaineers.  On  his  return  to  Rome,  1783,  he  was 
reproached  for  having  made  so  many  concessions,  and  was 
persuaded  to  refuse  his  recognition  of  the  archbishop  of 
Milan  nominated  by  Joseph.  The  emperor  was,  in  return, 
unsparing  of  his  threats,  and  unexpectedly  appeared  at  Rome 
in  person  in  1783.  The  archbishop  of  Milan  was  con- 
firmed in  his  dignity,  and  the  Roman  populace  evinced  the 
greatest  enthusiasm  for  Joseph,  in  whose  honor  the  cry, 
"Evviva  nostro  imperatore ! "  continually  resounded  in  the 
streets. 

The  pope,  nevertheless,  recovered  from  his  terror,  and 
created  a  new  nunciature  for  Munich  as  a  bulwark  of  the 
hierarchy  in  Germany,  upon  which  Joseph  deprived  the 
nuncios  of  all  the  privileges  they  had  hitherto  enjoyed, 
which  he  bestowed  upon  the  provincial  bishops,  more  par- 
ticularly upon  those  of  Germany,  whom  he  sought  by  these 
means  to  place  in  opposition  to  the  bishop  of  Rome.  In 
effect,  Mayence,  Treves,  Cologne,  and  Salzburg  held  a  con- 
gress, in  1785,  at  the  bath  of  Ems,  and  declared  in  favor 
of  the  emperor's  principles.  Frederick  II.  (Prussia  and  the 
ex-Jesuits  were  at  that  time  in  close  alliance),  however,  en- 
couraged the  pope,  through  his  agent,  Ciofani,  at  Rome,  to 
make  a  vigorous  opposition.  John  Miiller,  the  Swiss  histo- 
rian, also  turned  his  cheaply-bribed  pen  against  the  reforms 
attempted  by  Joseph,  whom  he  libels  as  a  despot,  and  whose 

1  He  wrote  triumphantly  to  the  cardinals  that  he  had  dispensed  his  blessing 
to  countless  thousands  from  the  windows  of  the  same  houso  whence  "teterrima 
ilia  Augustana  confessio"  had  been  first  proclaimed.—  Acta  Hist.  Eccl.  nostri 
Tump. 


1316  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

good  intentions  he  cunningly  veils.  The  most  violent  oppo- 
sition was  that  raised  in  Austria.  In  the  more  distant  prov- 
inces, the  clergy  accused  him  of  attempting  the  overthrow  of 
Christianity.  In  Lemberg,  a  monk  plotted  against  his  life: 
Joseph  had  him  imprisoned  in  a  madhouse.  In  Innsbruck, 
a  popular  disturbance  took  place  on  account  of  an  alteration 
being  made  in  one  of  the  church  altars,  the  priests  having 
spread  a  report  of  the  emperor's  intention  to  destroy  all 
altars.  At  Villach,  a  figure,  intended  to  represent  Dr.  Lu- 
ther, was  carried  about  on  a  wheelbarrow  and  cast  into  the 
Danube.  In  several  places,  the  Protestants  were  ill-treated. 
Freedom  of  the  press  being  granted  by  Joseph,  the  most  vio- 
lent and  abusive  charges  against  him  were  published  by  the 
clergy  and  publicly  sold  by  Wucherer,  the  Viennese  book- 
seller, who  made  a  large  profit  by  them.  Joseph's  enemies 
were,  however,  less  injurious  to  him  than  his  false  friends, 
who  incessantly  loaded  him  with  praise  and  spread  the  most 
unchristian,  atheistical,  and  immoral  ideas;  Blumauer,  for 
instance,  who  wrote  in  imitation  of  Voltaire,  and  whose  im- 
pudent and  shallow  works  found  a  great  sale.  In  many 
places,  this  party  ventured  to  treat  church  ceremonies  with 
open  ridicule,  and  Joseph  was  repeatedly  compelled  to  pro- 
test against  the  misinterpretation  of  the  edict  of  toleration 
and  the  unbounded  license,  by  which  means,  as  Dohm  well 
observes,  he  was  no  longer  beheld  with  awe  by  the  one  party 
or  with  confidence  by  the  other. 

Notwithstanding  the  congress  of  Ems,  he  was  opposed 
not  only  by  the  Austrian  clergy,  but  also  by  that  of  the  em- 
pire, on  which  he  had,  moreover,  made  a  violent  attack,  by 
separating  all  the  portions  of  the  bishoprics  of  Passau,  Coire, 
Constance,  and  Liege,  lying  within  his  hereditary  states,  and 
placing  them  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  bishoprics  within 
his  territories.  Olmiitz  was  erected  into  an  archbishopric ; 
Brtinn  was  formed  into  a  new  diocese. 

Joseph's  reforms  extended  to  the  state  as  well  as  to  the 
church,  and  everywhere  met  with  the  same  opposition.  His 
attempt  to  give  unity  to  the  state,  to  establish  uniform  laws 


THE   RISE   OF   PRUSSIA  1317 

and  a  uniform  administration, '  was  contravened  by  the  di- 
verse nationalities  and  by  the  difference  in  the  state  of  civili- 
zation of  the  various  nations  beneath  his  rule.  His  attempt 
to  confer  the  boon  of  liberty  on  the  lower  class,  to  humble 
the  unrestricted  power  of  the  nobility,  to  establish  equality 
before  the  law  and  an  equal  taxation,  was  opposed  not  only 
by  the  hitherto  privileged  classes,  but  also  by  the  peasantry, 
who  either  ignorantly  misunderstood  his  intention,  or  were 
purposely  misled  in  order  to  check  the  progress  of  his  reforms 
by  excesses;  as  was,  for  instance,  the  case  among  the  Wal- 
lachian  population  of  Transylvania,  where  a  certain  Horja, 
who  gave  himself  out  for  a  plenipotentiary  of  the  emperor, 
excited  the  peasantry  to  revolt  against  the  nobility,  assassi- 
nated one  hundred  and  twenty  nobles,  and  destroyed  two 
hundred  and  sixty-four  castles.  The  emperor  was  finally 
compelled  to  put  him  down  by  force.  He  and  his  colleague 
Kloczka  were  condemned  to  the  wheel,  and  two  thousand  of 
the  Wallachian  prisoners  were  compelled  to  behold  their  exe- 
cution; one  hundred  and  fifty  were,  according  to  the  custom 
of  their  country,  impaled  alive.  And  yet  Joseph's  clemency 
had  been  so  great  as  to  inspire  him  with  a  desire  to  abolish 
the  punishment  of  death.  Thus  did  his  subjects  deceive  his 
belief  in  their  capability  of  improvement.  The  nobility  were 
rendered  his  mortal  enemies  by  the  condemnation  of  Colonel 
Szekuly  to  exposure  in  the  pillory  for  swindling,  and  by  that 
of  Prince  Podstatsky-Lichtenstein,  for  forging  bank-notes,  to 
sweep  the  public  streets.  Among  other  offences  against  the 
nobility  was  that  of  throwing  open  to  the  public  the  great 
Prater,  which  had  hitherto  been  the  exclusive  resort  of  the 
court  and  nobility.  The  higher  nobility,  protesting  against 
this  innovation,  received  the  following  characteristic  reply 
from  the  emperor:  "Were  I  only  to  associate  with  my  equals 

1  He  simplified  it  first  of  all  in  Vienna,  by  the  abolition  of  the  abuses  intro- 
duced by  the  multiplicity  of  writing  in  all  the  public  and  government  offices.  Iu 
Moser's  Patriot.  Archiv.  the  Viennese  snail's  pace  before  the  time  of  Joseph  II. 
is  fully  described ;  a  petition  or  an  account  had  to  pass,  in  the  course  of  being 
copied,  registered,  answered,  signed,  etc.,  through  no  fewer  than  eighty-five 
hands. 


1318  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

I  should  be  compelled  to  descend  into  my  family  vault  and 
to  spend  my  days  amid  the  dust  of  my  ancestors."  The 
nobility  were  also  deeply  wounded  by  the  law  empowering 
natural  children  to  inherit  the  property  of  their  unmarried 
fathers,  which  had  been  established  by  Joseph  as  a  protec- 
tion to  the  daughters  of  the  citizens  against  their  seductive 
artifices.  He  also  ennobled  a  number  of  meritorious  citizens 
and  even  created  Fries,  the  manufacturer,  who  had  greatly 
distinguished  himself  by  his  commercial  enterprise  and  pa- 
triotism, count. 

In  1785,  he  was,  for  a  third  time,  led  by  his  fixed  idea 
for  the  extension  of  his  domains,  so  little  consistent  with  his 
character,  so  noted  for  humanity  in  all  other  respects,  to  re- 
new negotiations  with  Charles  Theodore  for  the  possession  of 
Bavaria.  A  German  confederacy,  set  on  foot  by  Frederick 
II. ,  however,  set  a  limit  to  his  pretensions ;  and,  in  his  dis- 
pleasure at  this  frustration  of  his  plans,  he  was  induced  by 
the  intriguing  Eussian  empress  to  join  her  in  the  conquest 
of  the  East.  A  personal  interview  took  place  between  the 
two  powers  at  Cherson. '  The  partition  of  Turkey,  like  that 
of  Poland,  formed  the  subject  of  their  deliberations.  A  di- 
version made  to  their  rear  by  Gustavus  III.  of  Sweden,  how- 
ever, compelled  Catherine  to  recall  the  greater  portion  of  her 
troops.  .Russia,  since  the  days  of  Peter  the  Great,  had  been 
a  field  of  speculation  for  Germans,  who,  to  the  extreme  det- 
riment of  their  native  country,  increased  the  power  of  Eussia 
by  filling  the  highest  civil  and  military  posts.  A  Prince 
Charles  of  Nassau- Siegen,  who  served  at  this  period  as  Eus- 
sian admiral,  was  shamefully  defeated  by  the  Swedes,  lost 
fifty-five  ships  and  twelve  thousand  men,  and  was  forced  to 
fly  for  his  life  in  a  little  boat.  The  Turkish  campaign  was, 
owing  to  these  disadvantageous  circumstances,  far  from  bril- 


1  He  had,  in  1780,  visited  her  at  St.  Petersburg  and  had  treated  her  so  flat- 
teringly, that,  on  his  offering  to  kiss  her  hand,  she  threw  her  arms  round  his 
neck.  She  travelled  in  the  same  carriage  with  him  to  Smolensk.  Her  coachman 
boasted,  on  this  occasion,  of  driving  two  powers,  for  whom  the  whole  universe 
was  not  wide  enough,  in  such  a  narrow  space. 


THE   RISE   OF  PRUSSIA  1319 

liant.  The  Russians  merely  took  Oczakow  by  storm  and  fixed 
themselves,  as  the  Austrians  should  have  done  in  their  stead, 
close  to  the  mouths  of  the  Danube.  Joseph  was  even  less 
successful.  The  extreme  heat  of  the  summer  of  1788  pro- 
duced a  pestilence,  which  carried  off  thirty-three  thousand 
Austrians.  The  bad  inclination  generated  among  the  lower 
class  by  the  nobility  and  clergy  had  crept  into  the  army.  At 
Caransebes,  the  troops  were  seized  with  a  sudden  panic  and 
took  to  flight,  carrying  the  emperor  along  with  them,  with- 
out an  enemy  being  in  sight.  The  Turks,  commanded  by 
French  officers,  were  several  times  victorious.  Sick  aud 
chagrined,  the  emperor  returned  to  Vienna,  and  it  was  not 
until  the  ensuing  year  that  the  honor  of  the  imperial  arms 
was  restored  by  Laudon  (who  had  fallen  into  neglect),  aided 
by  the  Duke  of  Coburg  and  General  Clairfait.  He  retook 
Belgrade,  but  his  further  progress  was  checked  by  the  nego- 
tiation of  peace.  Hungary  was  in  a  state  of  disturbance, 
the  Netherlands  in  revolt,  the  emperor  ill,  and  peace  with 
foreign  powers  indispensable. 

The  nobility  and  clergy  triumphed,  and  harassed  the  un- 
fortunate emperor — who  had  returned  from  the  Turkish  cam- 
paign suffering  from  an  illness  from  which  he  never  recov- 
ered— completely  to  death.  Irritated  by  their  opposition  and 
by  their  strong  position  in  the  Hungarian  diet,  he  dissolved 
that  assembly,  carried  the  sacred  crown  of  Hungary  to 
Vienna,  abolished  all  the  privileges  of  that  country,  and 
placed  the  Magyars  on  a  level  with  his  German  subjects. 
The  people  were  too  dull  of  comprehension  to  perceive  the 
advantage  they  thereby  gained,  or  were  deceived  by  the  no- 
bility and  clergy,  who  described  the  emperor  as  a  heretic, 
and  declaimed  against  the  violation  of  popular  rights  while 
skilfully  concealing  the  interests  of  their  order  beneath  the 
mask  of  the  national  pride  of  Hungary.  The  chief  points 
most  sturdily  opposed  by  the  nobility  were  the  liability,  hith- 
erto unknown,  of  their  order  to  taxation  and  the  alleviation 
of  the  burdens  borne  by  the  "misera  contribuens  plebs, "  as 
the  Hungarian  serfs  were  officially  termed. 


1320  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

The  Netherlands  were  in  a  still  more  violent  state  of  fer- 
mentation. Joseph,  confiding  in  his  alliance  with  France, 
which  he  had,  at  an  earlier  period,  visited'  for  the  purpose 
of  seeing  his  sister  Marie  Antoinette,  compelled  the  Dutch, 
in  1781,  to  annul  the  barrier- treaty  and  to  withdraw  their 
garrisons  from  the  fortresses  of  the  Austrian  Netherlands. 
The  occupation  of  the  fortresses  of  a  powerful  emperor  by 
the  Dutch,  who,  moreover,  kept  them  in  a  bad  state  of  re- 
pair, was  certainly  wholly  unfitting,  but  they  were  equally 
neglected  by  Joseph,  who  caused  almost  the  whole  of  them 
to  be  razed  to  the  ground  as  no  longer  necessary  for  the  de- 
fence of  the  frontier  against  France.  He  then  demanded 
from  Holland  the  opening  of  the  Scheldt.  His  demand  was 
by  no  means  unjust;  by  what  right  do  the  Dutch  close  the 
mouths  of  the  rivers  of  Germany  ?  Joseph,  however,  con- 
tented himself  with  threats  and  with  sending  down  the  river 
two  ships,  upon  which  the  Dutch  fired. a     War  was,  never- 


1  The  extreme  splendor  of  the  French  court  struck  him  with  astonishment 
and  he  earnestly  warned  his  sister  of  the  result.  His  simple  attire  as,  under 
the  incognito  of  Count  Falkenstein,  he  visited  the  public  buildings,  etc.,  and 
mingled  with  the  people,  attracted  universal  admiration.  He  was  praised  at  the 
expense  of  his  corpulent  and  thick-skulled  brother-in-law,  Louis  XVI. : 

A  nos  yeux  etonn^s  de  sa  simplicite 
Falkenstein  a  montre  la  majeste  sans  faste. 
Chez  nous,  par  un  honteux  contraste 
Qu'  a-t-il  trouve?  du  faste  sans  majeste\ 

Joseph  visited  several  distinguished  men  during  his  stay  in  Paris,  among  others, 
Buffon,  the  great  naturalist,  to  whom  he  said,  "I  beg  you  will  give  me  the  copy 
of  your  work  forgotten  by  my  brother."  His  brother,  Maximilian  of  Cologne, 
had  rudely  refused  a  copy  offered  to  him  by  Buffon,  with  the  remark,  "I  will 
not  rob  you  of  it."  The  emperor  also  mounted  to  Rousseau's  wretched  garret, 
where  he  found  him  occupied  in  copying  notes,  for  he  was  no  longer  the  lion  of 
the  day.  On  his  return  to  his  dominions,  he  neglected,  when  at  Geneva,  to  visit 
Voltaire,  whose  immorality  he  detested.  The  philosopher  was  mortally  wounded 
by  this  proof  of  disrespect.  Joseph,  on  the  other  hand,  did  not  fail  to  honor 
Albert  von  Haller,  the  eminent  poet  and  physician,  with  a  visit  on  his  route 
through  Berne.  Von  Erlach,  the  highborn  mayor  of  Berne,  also  awaited  his 
arrival  in  his  castle  with  planted  cannon  and  a  great  display  of  magnificence, 
and  had  himself  announced  under  the  title  of  Count;  Joseph,  however,  merely 
sent  him  his  verbal  excuses,  "that  he  was  too  dusty  from  travelling  to  visit  such 
a  fine  gentleman."     A  good  lesson  for  the  republicans! 

5  Kaunitz  had  vainly  attempted  to  dissuade  the  emperor  from  this  scheme 
and  had  always  said,  "They  will  fire  upon  them,"  which  Joseph  refused  to 
believe.     The  event  had  no  sooner  answered  Kaunitz's  expectation  than  he 


THE   RISE   OF   PRUSSIA  1321 

theless,  averted  by  a  gift  of  nine  million  florins  from  the 
Dutch  to  the  emperor,  whose  conduct  on  this  occasion  was 
construed  as  a  sign  of  weakness  by  the  Austrian  Nether- 
lands, where  the  powerful  and  influential  clergy  seized  every 
opportunity  to  raise  enemies  against  him.  "When,  in  1786, 
Joseph  abolished  the  ecclesiastical  schools  as  dens  of  the 
grossest  darkness  and  ordered  a  great  universal  seminary 
for  fifteen  hundred  scholars  to  be  founded  on  entirely  mod- 
ern principles,  a  popular  tumult,  which  was  only  put  down 
by  the  military,  ensued.  The  fermentation,  however,  con- 
tinued. During  the  war  with  Turkey,  Joseph  allowed  the 
affairs  in  the  Netherlands  to  take  their  own  course,  but,  in 
1789,  commenced  acting  with  great  energy,  and  General 
d'Alton  was  compelled  to  have  recourse  to  force  and  to  dis- 
solve the  Estates.  The  civil  governor,  Count  Trautmanns- 
dorf,  a  man  of  great  weakness  of  character,  in  the  hope  of 
winning  over  the  people  by  kindness,  relaxed  the  reins  of 
government,  rendered  it  contemptible,  and  frustrated  every 
measure  taken  by  d'Alton.  The  opposition  instantly  re- 
gained courage.  Van  der  Noot,  a  lawyer  of  deep  cunning, 
had,  during  his  secret  visits  to  The  Hague  and  to  Berlin, 
secured  the  aid  of  Holland  and  Prussia,  the  latter  of  which 
sent  General  Schonfeld  to  take  the  command  of  the  insur- 
gents. Cardinal  Frankenberg,  archbishop  of  Malines,  a 
stately  political  puppet,  was  placed  at  the  head  of  the  new 
government  constituted  at  Breda,  and  the  officers  and  young 
men,  who  were  already  infected  with  republicanism,  were 
called  to  arms.  D'Alton,  unable  to  maintain  Brussels,  laid 
down  the  command.  Ghent  was  taken  by  stratagem.  The 
insurgents,  disguising  themselves  in  the  uniforms  belonging 
to  an  Austrian  regiment  which  had  been  dispersed  and  partly 

informed  the  emperor  of  the  fact  in  a  laconic  note,  merely  containing  the  words 
"They  have  fired."  This  oft-related  anecdote  is  not  so  much  to  the  point  as  the 
information  given  by  Sinclair  (the  first  political  economist,  who  visited  the  em- 
peror in  1786),  concerning  Joseph's  displeasure  against  England.  The  English, 
offended  at  the  impolitic  alliance  between  Austria  and  France,  were  unsparing 
in  their  attacks  upon  the  emperor  both  in  parliament  and  by  the  press,  and 
undoniably  encouraged  the  Dutch  to  fire  upon  the  imperial  ships. 


132*  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

taken  prisoner,  marched  to  Ghent,  were  allowed  to  enter  by 
the  deceived  garrison,  and  took  the  city.  The  Austrians 
under  General  Bender  alone  retained  possession  of  Luxem- 
burg. On  the  11th  of  January,  1790,  the  whole  of  the  Neth- 
erlands, under  the  name  of  "United  Belgium,"  declared 
itself  independent.  A  dispute,  however,  arose  among  the 
victors.  The  hierarchical  faction,  to  which  Van  der  Noot 
belonged,  attacked  the  weaker  democratical  party,  the 
Vonckists,  so  called  from  its  principal  leader,  Vonck,  which 
had  countenanced  the  insurrection  in  the  hope  of  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  republic;  they  were,  moreover,  followers  of 
the  modern  French  philosophers  and  the  avowed  enemies 
of  the  priesthood.  Their  houses  were  plundered;  their  gen- 
eral, Mersch,  a  devoted  partisan  of  the  democratical  cause, 
was  divested  of  the  command;  several  persons  were  cruelly 
murdered;  one,  for  instance,  who  mocked  a  procession,  had 
his  head  sawn  off.1  Joseph's  unpopularity  in  the  Nether- 
lands was  chiefly  occasioned  by  his  offer  to  cede  them  to 
Bavaria.  How  could  his  zeal  for  the  welfare  of  his  subjects 
find  credence  when  he  attempted  to  sell  them  to  another 
sovereign  ? 

About  the  same  time,  the  Hungarian  nobility  assumed 
such  a  threatening  attitude,  and  found  means  to  rouse  the 
people  to  such  a  pitch  of  excitement,  that  Joseph  was  com- 
pelled to  revoke  the  whole  of  his  ordinances  for  the  welfare 
of  Hungary.  On  hearing  that  even  the  peasantry,  on  whom 
he  had  attempted  to  bestow  such  immense  benefits,  had  risen 
against  him,  he  exclaimed,  "I  shall  die,  I  must  be  made  of 
wood  if  this  does  not  kill  me!"  and  three  weeks  afterward 
he  expired,  after  revoking  his  most  important  reforms  for 
the  sake  of  avoiding  the  necessity  of  having  recourse  to  ex- 
treme measures.  He  died  at  Vienna  on  February  20,  1790, 
as  Jellenz  observed,  "a  century  too  early,"  and  as  Kemer 

1  In  the  insurgent  army,  a  Capuchin  was  to  be  seen  wearing  a  high  black  cap 
to  which  an  enormous  cockade  was  attached ;  in  his  hands  he  carried  a  sabre 
and  a  crucifix;  in  his  yellow  girdle,  pistols,  a  knife  and  a  rosary;  his  gown  was 
sown  up  between  his  legs,  which  were  stuck  bare  into  short  boots. 


THE   RISE   OF   PRUSSIA  1328 

said,  "mistaken   by   a   people   unworthy  of  such  a  sover- 
eign." 

Joseph  II.  (der  Andre)  was  handsome  in  his  person ;  his 
eyes  were  blue  and  expressive,  hence  the  saying  "Imperial 
blue,"  in  order  to  denote  that  color  in  the  eye.  Frederick 
the  Great  thus  spoke  of  him  in  a  letter  to  Voltaire,  "Edu- 
cated amid  bigotry,  he  is  free  from  superstition ;  habituated 
to  pomp,  his  habits  are  simple;  grown  up  amid  flattery,  he 
is  still  modest." 

His  bronze  statue  at  Vienna  bears  the  following  just  in- 
scription :  "  Josepho  Secundo,  qui  saluti  publicse  vixit  non  diu 
sed  totus. "  Shortly  before  his  death,  he  wrote,  "Although 
there  have  formerly  been  Neros  and  a  Dionysius,  although 
there  have  been  tyrants  who  abused  the  power  delivered  to 
them  by  fate,  is  it  on  that  account  just,  under  pretence 
of  guarding  a  nation's  rights  for  the  future,  to  place  every 
imaginable  obstacle  in  the  way  of  a  prince,  the  measures  of 
whose  government  solely  aim  at  the  welfare  of  his  subjects? 
I  know  my  own  heart;  I  am  convinced  of  the  sincerity 
of  my  intentions,  of  the  uprightness  of  my  motives,  and  I 
trust  that  when  I  shall  no  longer  exist,  posterity  will  judge 
more  justly  and  more  impartially  of  my  exertions  for  the 
welfare  of  my  people." 

His  brother  and  successor,  Leopold  III. ,  whose  govern- 
ment of  Tuscany  offered  a  model  to  princes,  made  every 
concession  to  the  nobility  and  clergy,  in  order  to  conciliate 
his  subjects,  and  restored  the  ancient  regime  throughout 
Austria.  The  whole  of  the  monasteries  were  not,  however, 
reopened;  in  Bohemia,  bondage  was  not  reinforced;  and  the 
Lutherans  and  Reformers  were  also  tolerated.  All  the  other 
privileges  of  the  nobility  and  clergy  were  restored.  Tuscany 
fell  to  Ferdinand,  Leopold's  second  son.  The  Dutch  were 
granted  an  amnesty  and  the  full  enjoyment  of  their  ancient 
privileges,  but  they  had  already  become  habituated  to  the 
independence  they  had  asserted  and  refused  to  submit.  Gen- 
eral Schonfeld,  the  leader  placed  at  the  head  of  the  insur- 
gents by  Prussia,  at  first  maintained  a  haughty  demeanor, 


1324  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

but,  on  the  reconciliation  of  Austria  with  Prussia  at  the  con- 
gress of  Heichenbach,  he  appears  to  have  acted  under  con- 
trary orders  and  to  have  made  use  of  his  position  to  ruin  the 
cause  he  pretended  to  uphold.  Avoiding  an  engagement, 
he  marched  up  and  down  the  country  until  the  imperialists 
were  reinforced,  when  he  retreated  and  threw  up  the  com- 
mand. General  Kohler,  who  was  appointed  to  replace  him, 
fled  to  Brussels,  where  his  troops,  assisted  by  the  populace, 
stormed  the  house  of  assembly,  plundered  the  arsenal  and 
magazines  and  decamped,  leaving  the  Austrians  to  enter  the 
country  unopposed. 

CCXXXIX.   Frederick  William  the  Second 

"Old  Fritz,"  as  the  Prussians  named  their  great  mon- 
arch, had  expired  in  1786.  He  retained  his  faculties  to 
the  last;  his  eccentricities  had,  however,  increased,  and, 
in  his  contempt  for  the  whole  human  race,  he  expressed 
a  wish  to  be  buried  among  his  favorite  greyhounds. 

His  nephew,  Frederick  William  II. ,  was  an  additional 
proof  of  the  little  resemblance  existing  between  the  different 
monarchs  of  Prussia.  He  left  the  machine  of  government, 
arranged  by  his  uncle,  unaltered,  but  intrusted  its  manage- 
ment to  weak  and  incompetent  ministers,  who  encouraged 
his  fondness  for  the  sex,  his  inclination  to  bigotry,  and  his 
belief  in  apparitions.  Frederick's  faithful  servant,  Herz- 
berg,  the  aged  minister,  was  removed  from  office  and  re- 
placed by  Wollner,  a  wretched  charlatan,  who  strengthened 
the  king's  belief  in  ghosts  by  means  of  optical  glasses;  by 
General  Bischofswerder,  a  priestly  slave,  who  opposed  tolera- 
tion; by  Luchesini  and  Lombard,  weak  diplomatists,  who 
unnerved  the  policy  of  Prussia;  by  their  want  of  decision, 
their  impolitic  want  of  faith;  and  by  the  two  mistresses  of  the 
king,  Madame  Rietz,  created  Countess  Lichtenau,  and  the 
Fraulein  von  Voss,  created  Countess  Ingenheim.  These  fa- 
vorites were  utterly  devoid  of  talent  and  merely  rendered  the 
business  of  state  a  mass  of  inextricable  confusion.     Docu- 


THE    RISE    OF   PRUSSIA  1325 

ments  and  letters  of  the  utmost  importance  lay  carelessly 
scattered  over  the  royal  apartments,  to  which  women,  pages, 
sycophants  of  every  description  had  free  ingress.  The  high- 
est offices  of  state  were  bestowed  by  favor;  the  royal  treas- 
ury, containing  seventy  millions,  was  so  lavishly  scattered  as 
to  be  speedily  replaced  by  an  equal  amount  of  debt.  The 
order  of  merit,  with  which  Frederick  had  decorated  merely 
seventy  of  the  heroes  of  the  seven  years'  war,  was  now  show- 
ered indifferently  upon  the  lounging  courtiers.  The  crown 
lands,  the  object  of  the  late  king's  care,  were  given  away 
or  made  use  of  as  a  means  of  ennobling  a  number  of  most 
unworthy  personages.  Complaisant  lackeys,  chambermaids' 
favorites,  expert  rogues,  ready  to  lend  their  services  on  all 
occasions,  were  placed  on  an  equality  with  the  ancient  no- 
bility. These  newly-dubbed  nobles  were  mockingly  termed 
the  freshly-baked  or  the  six-and-eighty.  Mirabeau,  who 
was  at  that  time  French  agent  at  Berlin,  wrote  the  follow- 
ing laconic  account  of  the  new  Prussian  court:  "A  decreased 
revenue,  an  increased  expenditure,  genius  neglected,  fools 
at  the  helm.  Never  was  a  government  nearer  ruin.  I  am 
returning  to  Paris,  for  I  will  no  longer  be  condemned  to  act 
the  part  of  a  beast  and  crawl  through  the  dirty,  crooked 
paths  of  a  government  which  daily  gives  fresh  proof  of  its 
ignorance  and  servility." 

The  king,  notwithstanding  these  defects,  was  not  devoid 
of  military  ambition,  and  an  opportunity  for  its  display  was 
not  long  wanting.  Like  Joseph,  he  was  tempted  to  the  at- 
tack by  the  weakness  of  Holland.  "William  IV.,  the  first 
hereditary  stadtholder,  expired  in  1751.  Louis  Ernest, 
duke  of  Brunswick,  whose  hauteur  rendered  him  highly 
unpopular,  reigned  for  some  time  in  the  name  of  the  youth- 
ful heir,  William  V.  The  ancient  spirit  of  the  people  had 
insensibly  decayed.  The  great  wealth  of  the  inhabitants 
had  engendered  habits  of  luxury.  In  the  East  Indian  colo- 
nies, the  governor,  Valckenier,  gained  an  evil  fame  by  the 
cold-blooded  murder  of  twelve  thousand  Chinese,  who  had 
ventured  to  complain  of  his  tyrannical  conduct.     On  the 


1326  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

conquest  of  Bengal,  in  1757,  by  the  English,  the  expulsion 
of  the  Dutch  from  the  Indian  continent  was  planned,  but 
the  first  outbreak  of  the  war  was  occasioned  in  1780,  by  the 
public  sale  in  Holland  of  English  ships  captured  by  North 
American  privateers.  A  small  Dutch  fleet  and  a  number  of 
Dutch  merchantmen  were  seized  by  the  English.  The  weak- 
ness of  the  navy  was,  with  great  justice,  laid  to  the  charge 
of  the  duke  of  Brunswick,  who  had  neglected  it  in  order 
to  set  the  army  on  a  better  footing,  and  he  was  compelled  to 
resign  his  authority.  The  Dutch,  nevertheless,  twice  suc- 
ceeded in  repulsing  the  English  fleet  on  the  Doggersbank 
and  on  its  way  to  the  Sound;  but  they  suffered  terrible 
losses  in  the  colonies.  They  were  also  abandoned  by  France 
and  Russia,  the  chief  authors  of  the  war,  and  were  finally 
compelled,  by  the  peace  of  Versailles,  1783,  to  cede  Naga- 
patam,  their  principal  settlement  on  the  Indian  continent, 
several  African,  colonies,  and  even  their  ancient  maritime 
privilege,  which  protected  the  cargo  beneath  their  flag.  This 
ill-starred  peace  increased  the  unpopularity  of  the  heredi- 
tary stadtholder,  who  was  completely  ruled  by  the  duke  of 
Brunswick.  His  open  attempts  to  usurp  monarchical  power, 
in  which  he  was  encouraged  by  his  consort,  Wilhelmina,  the 
sister  of  Frederick  William  II.,  by  Count  Grcertz,  the  Prus- 
sian ambassador,  and  by  Harris,  the  malicious  English  en- 
voy, added  to  the  popular  exasperation,  and  the  storm,  which 
the  French  had  also  greatly  fomented,  at  length  burst  forth.1 
On  the  4th  of  September,  1786,  Gyzelaar  of  Dordrecht  de- 
clared in  the  states-general  that  all  the  evil  that  had  befallen 
the  republic  took  its  rise  in  the  bosom  of  the  first  servant  of 
the  state,  the  hereditary  stadtholder.  These  words  were  a 
signal  for  revolt.  The  armed  burgher  guard  dissolved  the 
councils,  all  of  which  favored  the  house  of  Orange,  at  Utrecht, 

1  Sinclair,  the  celebrated  Scotch  political  economist,  who  was  at  that  time 
travelling  through  Holland,  expressed  himself  strongly  against  the  intrigues  of 
France.  Dutchmen  were  bribed  with  money  previously  borrowed  from  their 
countrymen;  the  house  of  the  French  ambassador  was  a  temple  of  Venus,  to 
whom  virtue  was  sacrificed;  abusive  and  immoral  pamphlets  found  a  large 
sale.  — Sinclair's  Lije. 


THE   RISE   OF  PRUSSIA  1327 

Amsterdam,  Kotterdam,  etc.  The  province  of  Holland  first 
declared  the  deposition  of  the  stadtholder,  who  took  refuge 
in  the  fortress  of  Nimwegen  and  supplicated  aid  from  Prus- 
sia. Frederick  William  hesitated  and  was  at  first  unwilling 
to  have  recourse  to  violence,  upon  which  Wilhelmina,  the 
consort  of  the  stadtholder,  quitted  Nimwegen,  and,  as  Gcertz 
in  his  Memoirs  says,  "took  the  bold  but  well-planned  step" 
of  returning  to  Holland  solely  for  the  purpose  of  allowing 
herself  to  be  insulted  by  the  rebels  in  order  to  rouse  the 
vengeance  of  her  brother.  The  Princess  was,  in  fact,  stopped 
on  the  frontier  and  treated  with  little  reverence  by  the  citizen 
soldiery;'  she  was,  however,  restored  to  liberty.  This  insult 
offered  to  a  Prussian  princess  decided  the  king,  and  he  sent 
Ferdinand,  duke  of  Brunswick  (the  same  who  had  distin- 
guished himself  when  hereditary  prince  in  the  seven  years' 
war,  and  again  in  1778,  by  his  gallantry  in  the  camp  of 
Troppau,  and  who  now  held  the  appointment  of  generalis- 
simo of  the  Prussian  forces),  with  an  army  into  Holland, 
which  he  speedily,  and  almost  without  opposition,  reduced 
to  submission.  Count  Salm,  who  had  been  charged  with 
the  defence  of  Utrecht,  secretly  withdrew.  The  reaction 
was  complete,  and  in  1787  all  the  patriots  or  anti-Orange- 
men were  deprived  of  their  offices. 

Prussia  was,  in  her  foreign  policy,  peculiarly  inimical  to 
Joseph  II.  Besides  supporting  the  Dutch  insurgents,  she 
instigated  the  Hungarians  to  rebellion  and  even  concluded 
an  alliance  with  Turkey,  which  compelled  Joseph's  suc- 
cessor, the  emperor  Leopold,  by  the  peace  of  Szistowa,  in 
1791,  to  restore  Belgrade  to  the  Porte. — The  revolt  of  the 
people  of  Liege,  in  1789,  against  their  bishop,  Constantine 
Francis,  also  gave  Prussia  an  opportunity  to  throw  a  garri- 
son into  that  city  under  pretext  of  aiding  the  really  oppressed 
citizens,  but,  in  reality,  on  account  of  the  inclination  of  the 
bishop  to  favor  Austria.    When,  not  long  after  this,  Prussia 

1  The  officer,  by  whom  she  had  been  arrosu>d.  refused  to  quit  lior  room  and 
regaled  himself  with  beer  and  tobacco  in  her  presence. — Jacobi,  History  of  the 
Disturbances  in  the  Netherlands. 


1328  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

united  with  Austria  against  France,  the  restoration  of  the 
bishop  was  quietly  tolerated. 

Frederick  William  II.,  although  misled  by  Wollner  and 
Bischofswerder  to  publish,  in  1788,  edicts1  of  censure  and 
religious  ordinances  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  the  times  and 
threatening  to  impede  the  progress  of  enlightenment,  ab- 
stained from  enforcing  them,  and  the  French  philosophy, 
patronized  by  Frederick  II.,  continued  to  predominate  under 
the  auspices  of  the  duke  of  Brunswick,  the  grand-master  of 
the  Masonic  lodges  in  Germany. 

The  secret  society  of  Freemasons  had  in  the  commence- 
ment of  this  century  spread  from  England  over  Germany 
and  greatly  promoted  the  progress  of  civilization.  In  Eng- 
land, the  ancient  corporation  of  stonemasons  had  insensibly 
been  converted  into  a  loyal  club,  which  no  longer  practiced 
architecture,  but  retained  its  symbols  and  elected  a  prince 
of  the  blood- royal  as  its  president.  After  the  execution  of 
Charles  L,  Ramsey,  preceptor  to  the  children  of  Charles  II., 
during  his  exile  made  use  of  the  Scottish  Masons  in  order  to 
pave  the  way  for  the  restoration  of  the  Stuarts.  Hiram,  the 
builder  of  the  Temple  of  Solomon,  under  whose  mystical 
name  the  Saviour,  the  builder  of  the  Christian  church,  was 
generally  understood,  was  now  supposed  to  represent  Charles 
I.,  and  was  honored  as  the  "murdered  master*"  The  Jes- 
uits played  a  principal  part  in  this  Scottish  Masonry  and 
transferred  much  that  was  Jesuitical  to  Masonry  (Freema- 
sonry or  the  royal  art).  On  the  second  fall  of  the  Stuarts, 
the  new  Hanoverian  dynasty  established  an  English  Prot- 
estant lodge  in  opposition  to  that  of  Scotland  and  gave  it,  as 
its  principal  symbol,  the  letter  G  (George)  in  a  sun.  Free- 
masonry now  rapidly  spread  among  the  Protestants,  gained 
a  footing  in  Hamburg  (1733)  and  in  Berlin  (1740),  and  ere 

'  Tn  Berlin,  Schulz,  known  as  the  pigtail  minister,  was  deprived  of  his  office 
for  venturing  to  exchange  the  stately  w  -lesiastical  peruke  for  a  fashionable 
queue  and  for  preaching  Rationalism  instead  of  Christianity.  The  edicts  were 
brutal  in  their  denunciations,  nor  was  the  horror  they  inspired  diminished  by  Iho 
knowledge  that  the  religious  and  moral  regulations  contained  in  them  proceeded 
from  the  lackeys  of  a  Lichtenau. 


THE   RISE   OF  PRUSSIA  1329 

long  became  the  centre  of  civilization  in  its  nobler  and  moral 
sense.  Frederick  II.  favored  the  society  and  became  a  mem- 
ber. The  aim  of  this  society  was  the  erection  of  the  invisible 
temple  of  humanity,  and  its  allegorical  symbols,  the  trowel, 
the  square,  the  leather  apron,  were  borrowed  from  the  tools 
used  in  common  masonry.  The  object,  promised  but  never 
attained  by  the  church,  the  conferment  of  happiness  on  the 
human  race  by  the  practice  of  virtue  and  by  fraternity,  by 
the  demolition  of  all  the  barriers  that  had  hitherto  separated 
nations,  classes,  and  sect  was  that  for  which  this  society 
labored.  In  Germany,  Freemasonry  had  ever  a  moral  pur- 
pose. It  was  only  in  France  that  it  became  matter  for  spec- 
ulation and  vanity,  and  it  was  merely  owing  to  the  rage  for 
imitating  every  French  folly  that  French  Freemasonry,  with 
its  theatrical  terrors,  its  higher  degrees  sold  to  the  credulous 
for  solid  gold,  and  its  new  rites  of  the  self- denominated 
Templars,1  intended  as  a  bait  to  the  nobility,  gained  a  foot- 
ing in  Germany.  Adventurers  of  every  description  prac- 
ticed upon  the  credulity  of  the  rich  and  noble  and  defrauded 
them  of  their  gold.  The  Sicilian,  Cagliostro,  was  the  prince 
of  impostors. 

The  society  of  Freemasons  was  prohibited  by  the  Catholic 
states  of  Southern  Germany,  where  another  secret  society  of 
a  far  more  dangerous  character  was,  however,  formed.  In 
the  Protestant  countries,  the  advance  of  civilization  had  been 
gradual,  the  seed  had  slowly  ripened  in  the  fostering  bosom 
of  futurity.  But,  in  Bavaria,  but  one  step  was  made  from 
the  ridiculous  stories  of  Father  Kochem  to  the  infidelity  of 
Voltaire,  and  the  rising  generation,  emancipating  itself  from 
the  yoke  of  the  Jesuits,  instantly  fell  into  the  opposite  ex- 
treme and  attempted  to  annihilate  by  force  not  merely  the 
church  but  every  positive  religion.  It  was  in  this  spirit  that 
Professor  Weishaupt  founded,  at  Ingolstadt,  in  1776,  the 
order  of  the  Illuminati,  to  which  he  gave  the  old  Jesuitical 


1  Freemasonry  was  alleged  to  have  been  first  practiced  by  the  ancient  Tem- 
plars. 

Germany.     Vol.  III. — 18 


1330  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

constitution,  that  is,  the  initiated  took  the  oath  of  uncondi- 
tional obedience  to  their  secret  superiors.  This  fanatical 
conspiracy  against  religion  no  sooner  became  known  to  the 
numerous  free-thinkers  of  Northern  Germany  than  they  sed- 
ulously endeavored  to  enter  into  connection  with  it,  and,  by 
the  intervention  of  the  notorious  Baron  von  Knigge,  a  Hano- 
verian adventurer  noted  for  talent  and  depravity,  the  Illumi- 
nati  became  connected  with  the  Freemasons,  and,  by  means 
of  Nicolai,  the  Berlin  bookseller,  the  editor  of  the  Universal 
German  Library,  they  had  a  public  organ  at  once  bold  and 
wary.  The  Illuminati  were,  notwithstanding,  decidedly  an- 
tipathetical to  the  great  majority  of  Freemasons  in  Northern 
Germany.  Ferdinand,  duke  of  Brunswick,  in  his  quality  as 
grand-master,  convoked  all  the  German  Freemasons  to  a 
great  congress  at  Wihelmsbad  near  Hanau,  in  1782,  by 
which  the  contradictions  that  had  hitherto  appeared  in  eclec- 
tic Freemasonry,  as  it  was  termed,  were  as  far  as  possible  re- 
moved. In  the  ensuing  year,  the  great  lodge  of  the  Three 
Globes  at  Berlin  discovered  far  greater  energy  by  declaring 
every  person  who  attempted  to  degrade  Freemasonry  to  a 
society  inimical  to  Christianity  incapable  of  becoming  or  of 
remaining  a  member.  The  society  of  the  Illuminati  in  Bava- 
ria was,  two  years  later,  discovered  and  strictly  persecuted 
(1785).  Weishaupt  fled  to  Gotha,  where  he  was  protected 
by  the  duke,  Louis  Ernest.  Some  of  the  members  were  im- 
prisoned, deprived  of  their  offices,  etc.  This  also  served  as 
a  lesson  to  the  Freemasons,  who  were  thoroughly  reformed 
by  the  celebrated  actor,  Schrceder,  in  Hamburg,  and  Felzler, 
formerly  a  Capuchin,  in  Berlin,  by  on  the  one  hand  checking 
the  inclination  to  irreligion,  on  the  other,  by  banishing  dis- 
play and  superstition  and  by  restoring  the  ancient  simple 
Anglican  system,  in  a  word,  by  regermanizing  gallicized 
Freemasonry. 

The  society  of  the  Illuminati  continued,  meanwhile,  to 
exist  under  the  name  of  the  German  Union,  and,  as  a  proof 
of  its  power,  the  innumerable  satires  published  against  Zim- 
mermann  in  Hanover  on  his  raising  its  mask,  may  be  ad- 


THE   RISE   OF  PRUSSIA  1331 

duced.  In  Mayence,  the  coadjutor  of  the  archbishopric,  von 
Dalberg,  had  established  an  academy,  which  rivalled  those 
of  the  Protestants.  Here  dwelt  Forster,  the  celebrated  dis- 
coverer, the  witty  Heinse,  John  Muller,  the  Swiss  historian, 
etc.,  and  it  was  here  that  Illuminatism  took  refuge;  Dal- 
berg himself  took  the  oaths  and  entered  the  society  under 
the  name  of  Crescens.  Weishaupt  was  named  Spartacus; 
Knigge,  Philo;  Louis  Ernest,  duke  of  Gotha,  Timoleon; 
Ferdinand,  duke  of  Brunswick,  who  had  refused  entirely 
to  renounce  his  connection  with  the  Illuminati,  Aaron;  von 
dem  Busche,  Bayard;  Bode,  Amelius;  Nicolai,  Lucian,  etc. 
— The  society  was,  however,  first  essentially  raised  in  im- 
portance by  its  connection  with  Mirabeau,  the  talented  but 
unprincipled  French  agent  at  Berlin  and  Brunswick;  and 
Bode,  a  privy-councillor  of  the  duke  of  Weimar,  Weishaupt's 
successor,  and  von  dem  Busche  visited  Paris  "for  the  pur- 
pose of  illuminating  France."  Philip,  duke  of  Orleans,  at 
that  time  grand- master  of  the  French  lodges,  received  them 
with  open  arms.  Their  path  had  already  long  been  smoothed 
by  another  German,  von  Hollbach,  a  wealthy  nobleman  of 
the  Pfalz,  who  had  formed  a  secret  society,  of  which  Vol- 
taire was  the  honorary  president  and  Diderot  the  most  active 
member,  and  who  dissipated  his  wealth  in  order  to  inundate 
the  world  with  licentious  and  atheistical  works.  He  was  the 
author  of  that  scandalous  work,  "Le  Systeme  de  la  Nature." 
The  deadly  hatred  with  which  Philip  of  Orleans  viewed  the 
French  king,  whose  throne  he  coveted,  the  condemnation  of 
the  revolutionary  principles  of  the  secret  societies  by  Freder- 
ick the  Great  and  still  more  strongly  by  Frederick  William 
II.,  and,  finally,  the  deep  resentment  of  the  Illuminati,  on 
account  of  their  persecution  in  Bavaria,  caused  the  society 
to  rest  its  hopes  on  popular  agitation,  and,  aided  by  French 
Freemasonry,  it  spread  the  ideas  of  the  liberty  and  equality 
of  mankind,  of  the  establishment  of  a  universal  republic,  of 
the  fall  of  royalty,  and  of  the  abolition  of  Christianity.  The 
favorite  saying  of  the  Illuminati  was,  "The  last  king  ought 
to  be  hanged  with  the  entrails  of  the  last  priest."     These 


1332  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

ideas,  unable  to  take  root  in  Germany,  secretly  spread  and 
rankled  throughout  France,  the  native  soil  to  which  they 
had  returned. 


CCXL.    German  Influence  in  Scandinavia  and  Russia 

While  Germany  was  thus  a  prey  to  French  influence  in 
her  western  provinces,  her  native  influence  had  spread  to- 
ward the  east  and  north.  Scandinavia  had  borrowed  from 
her  Lutheranism  and  fresh  royal  dynasties.  The  house  of 
Oldenburg  reigned  over  Sweden  and  Norway.  Under  Fred- 
erick V.,  the  Hanoverian,  John  Hartwig  Ernest,  Count  von 
Bernstorff,  became  prime  minister  in  1750,  and  bestowed 
great  benefits  upon  the  country.  Denmark  remained,  never- 
theless, faithful  to  her  unneighborly  policy  toward  Germany, 
and  took  advantage  of  the  confusion  that  universally  pre- 
vailed during  the  seven  years'  war  to  extort  a  million  from 
the  citizens  of  Hamburg.  Frederick  V.  expired  m  1766. 
His  son  and  successor,  Christian  VII.,  a  being  both  mentally 
and  physically  degraded,  the  slave  of  low  debauchery  and 
folly,  married  Caroline  Matilda,  an  English  princess,  to 
whose  beauty  and  mental  charms  he,  however,  remained 
totally  indifferent.  In  the  hope  that  travelling  might  wean 
him  from  his  gross  pursuits,  he  was  persuaded  to  make  a 
tour  through  Europe.  On  the  journey,  his  private  physi- 
cian, a  young  man  named  Struensee,  the  son  of  a  clergyman 
of  Halle  in  SaxoDy,  succeeded  in  gaining  his  confidence. 
On  the  return  of  the  king,  whose  manners  had  not  been  im- 
proved by  his  travels,  Struensee  inoculated  the  crown  prince 
for  the  smallpox,  and  by  that  means  placed  himself  on  a  more 
intimate  footing  with  the  queen,  who  constantly  watched  by 
the  cradle  of  her  child,  and  they  formed  a  plan  to  place  the 
king  entirely  beneath  their  influence  and  to  govern  in  his 
name.  The  old  ministers,  and  among  them  Bernstorff,  were 
removed;  the  nobility  lost  their  influence  at  court;  Struensee 
became  prime  minister,  and,  in  conjunction  with  his  lriend 
Brand,  took  upon  himself  the  whole  weight  of  the  govern- 


THE   RISE   OF  PRUSSIA  1383 

ment.  He  concentrated  the  power  of  the  state,  effected  the 
most  beneficial  reforms,  more  especially  in  the  financial  de- 
partment, which  was  in  a  state  of  extreme  disorder,  and  re- 
leased Denmark  from  the  shameful  yoke  hitherto  imposed 
upon  her  by  the  arbitrary  Russian  ambassador,  Philosophow. 
Russia  was  not  slow  in  plotting  the  ruin  of  the  bold  German 
who  had  thus  ventured  to  withdraw  Denmark  from  her  in- 
fluence. Juliana,  the  queen- do  wager,  and  her  son,  Freder- 
ick, step-brother  to  the  reigning  monarch,  were  easily  gained. 
The  banished  councillors,  the  neglected  Danish  nobility,  and 
even  the  officers  of  the  guard,  aided  in  the  machinations  de- 
vised against  the  queen  and  Struensee.  Struensee,  rendered 
incautious  by  success,  treated  the  queen  with  too  great  fa- 
miliarity in  public,  published  mandates  of  the  highest  impor- 
tance without  the  king's  signature,  and  offended  the  guard 
by  attempting  to  disband  them.  The  irritated  soldiery  mu- 
tinied; blood  was  shed,  and  Struensee  gave  proof  of  his 
weakness  by  yielding  and  retaining  the  guard  around  the 
king's  person.  This  success  increased  the  audacity  of  the 
conspirators;  after  a  splendid  court  ball,  in  the  January  of 
1772,  Colonel  Roller  threw  his  regiment  into  the  palace,  and, 
on  the  following  morning,  astonished  Copenhagen  learned 
that  a  great  change  in  the  government  had  taken  place;  the 
king,  terrified  at  the  threats  of  the  conspirators,  had  signed  a 
warrant  for  the  arrest  of  the  queen,  Struensee,  and  Brand, 
and  had  been  placed  in  honorable  imprisonment  under  the 
care  of  his  step-brother,  who  governed  in  his  name.  The 
queen,  Caroline  Matilda,  was  dragged  from  her  bed,  and, 
notwithstanding  her  violent  struggles  (she  is  said  to  have 
thrown  down  the  officer  who  seized  her),  was  cast  into  prison. 
Struensee  met  with  similar  treatment.  He  was  told  that  by 
a  confession  of  having  carried  on  an  improper  intercourse 
with  the  queen  he  could  alone  save  his  life.  The  queen's 
enemies  required  this  confession  in  order  to  proceed  against 
her.  Struensee  is  said  to  have  been  induced  through  fear 
of  death  to  make  this  shameful  confession  (it  was  perhaps 
forged).     The  queen  was  now  told  that  the  only  means  of 


1334  THE   HISTORY   OF    GERMANY 

saving  Struensee's  life  was  by  a  confession  of  adultery,  which 
is  said  to  have  been  drawn  from  her  by  her  compassion  for 
him.  She  is  also  said  to  have  fainted  when  confessing  her 
guilt.  That  an  innocent  woman  would  thus  consent  to  her 
own  dishonor  is  more  than  improbable,  and  the  only  infer- 
ence to  be  drawn  from  the  circumstance  is,  either  that  of  her 
guilt  or  of  the  imposition  of  a  false  confession.  Struensee 
was,  in  consequence  of  this  confession  and  of  the  charge 
made  against  him  of  his  former  illegal  assumption  of  au- 
thority, sentenced  to  be  deprived  of  his  right  hand  and  of 
his  head.  Brand  suffered  the  same  punishment  in  1772. 
The  queen  was  separated  from  her  husband  and  banished 
to  Zelle,  where,  three  years  afterward,  she  died  of  a  broken 
heart,  in  her  twenty-fourth  year,  asserting  her  innocence 
with  her  latest  breath  (1775).  The  king  remained,  until 
1784,  under  the  guardianship  of  his  step-brother,  in  a  half 
idiotic  state,  and  died  at  a  great  age  in  1808.  Frederick 
VI.  was  his  son  and  successor.  Peter  Andrew,  BernstorfFs 
nephew,  succeeded  in  rising  to  the  head  of  the  government, 
in  the  conduct  of  which  he  displayed  great  talent  and  merit. 
He  it  was  who  first  abolished  feudal  bondage  in  Denmark 
and  the  slave-trade  in  the  colonies.  The  cession  of  Holstein 
to  the  Russian  line  of  the  house  of  Oldenburg  took  place 
immediately  after  the  catastrophe  of  1772. 

In  Sweden,  on  the  extinction  of  the  house  of  Wittelsbach 
in  the  person  of  Charles  XII.,  and  after  the  ensuing  disputes 
for  the  succession,  during  which  Frederick  of  Hesse  for  some 
time  wore  the  crown,  Adolphus  Frederick  of  Holstein- Got- 
torp,  a  collateral  branch  of  the  house  of  Oldenburg,  had 
mounted  the  throne  in  1743.  The  government  was,  how- 
ever, entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  nobility,  Ipy  whom,  on  the 
death  of  Charles  XII.,  the  honor  of  Sweden  had  been  already 
sold  and  the  conquests  had  been  ceded  without  a  blow,  and 
who,  in  pursuance  of  their  own  petty  private  interests,  were 
split  into  a  French  and  Russian  faction,  the  former  of  which 
was  denominated  the  Hats,  the  other  the  Caps.  Gustavus 
III.,  Adolphus  Frederick's  youthful  and  high-spirited  succes- 


THE   RISE   OF   PRUSSIA  1335 

sor,  by  a  sudden  revolution  put  an  end  to  this  wretched  aristo- 
cratic government  and  declared  himself  sole  sovereign  in 
1771.  His  first  step  was  the  restoration  of  the  ancient  glory 
of  Sweden  by  a  declaration  of  war  with  Russia  for  the  rule 
of  the  Baltic.  The  war  had  been  carried  on  at  sea  with 
various  fortune  since  1788,  when,  in  1792,  the  king  was  shot 
at  a  masked  ball  at  Stockholm  by  one  Ankarstrom,  an  ac- 
complice of  the  nobility,  who  aided  him  by  surrounding  the 
person  of  their  victim.  His  brother,  Charles,  duke  of  Suder- 
mania,  undertook  the  government  during  the  minority  of  his 
nephew,  Gustavus  Adolphus  IV.'  Germany  exercised  no 
control  over  Sweden,  which  still  retained  possession  of  Rugen 
and  Upper  Pomerania.  Her  influence  extended  far  more 
widely  over  Russia,  where  Peter  the  Great  had  given  his  new 
metropolis,  Petersburg,  a  German  name,  and  whither  he  had 
invited  great  numbers  of  Germans  for  the  purpose  of  teach- 
ing his  wild  subjects  arts  and  sciences,  military  tactics,  and 
navigation.  A  German,  the  celebrated  girl  of  Marienburg, 
whom  he  raised  to  his  bed  and  throne,  became,  on  his  death 
in  1725,  czarina  and  autocrat  of  all  the  Russias,  under  the 
name  of  Catherine  I.  She  was  succeeded  by  Peter  II.,  the 
grandson  of  Peter  the  Great,  the  son  of  the  unfortunate 
Alexis.  Alexis  was,  like  his  father,  subject  to  violent  fits  of 
fury,  but  was  totally  unendowed  with  his  intellect.  Peter, 
naturally  fearing  lest  his  reforms  and  regulations  might,  on 
his  son's  elevation  to  the  throne,  be  choked  in  the  bud,  con- 
demned him  to  lose  his  head  for  the  good  of  his  country. 
Alexis  had  married  the  Princess  Charlotte  Christina  Sophia 
of  Brunswick- Wolfenbuttel,  whose  history  might  well  form 
a  subject  for  romance.  Unable  to  endure  his  violence,  she 
gave  herself  out  for  dead  and  secretly  escaped  to  North 
America,  where,  on  her  husband's  death,  she  married  Lieu- 
tenant D' Auband,  a  man  of  great  personal  merit,  with  whom 
she  returned  to  France,  his  native  country,  whence  she  ac- 


1  The  best  account  of  this  event  is  to  be  met  with  in  Arndt's  Swedish  His- 
tory.— Leipzig,  1839. 


1336  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY  I 

companied  him  to  the  Mauritius  or  Isle  de  France,  where 
he  held  an  appointment.  On  his  death,  she  returned  to 
Paris,  where  she  ended  her  adventurous  life  at  a  great  age. 
Peter  II.  owed  his  succession  to  the  throne  to  the  influ- 
ence of  the  old  Russian  party  among  the  nobility,  particularly 
to  that  of  Prince  Dolgorouky,  by  whom  the  Germans  were 
regarded  with  feelings  of  the  deepest  hostility.  He  expired 
in  1730,  and,  with  the  consent  of  Anna  and  Elisabeth? 
the  two  surviving  daughters  of  Peter  the  Great,  one  of  his 
nieces  was  raised  to  the  Russian  throne.  Ivan,  the  brother 
of  Peter  the  Great,  had  left  two  daughters,  Catherine,  mar- 
ried to  Charles,  the  unworthy  duke  of  Mecklenburg,  and 
Anna,  married  to  the  last  of  the  Kettler  family,  Frederick 
William,  duke  of  Courland.1  Anna  was,  at  this  conjunc- 
ture, a  widow,  and  the  reigning  duchess  of  Courland.  She 
resided  in  great  privacy  at  Mitau  with  her  paramour,  Ernest 
von  Biron,  the  grandson  of  a  hostler,  whose  wife  she  retained 
near  her  person  as  a  cloak  to  their  intercourse.  The  weak- 
ness of  Anna's  conduct  had  pointed  her  out  as  a  proper  tool 
to  the  old  Russian  faction,  as  a  puppet  in  whose  name  they 
could  reign.  These  expectations  were,  however,  deceived; 
Anna,  on  mounting  the  throne,  discovered  the  utmost  energy 
and  decision,  intrusted  the  administration  of  the  empire  to 
Germans  distinguished  for  talent,  and  humbled  the  old  Rus- 
sian faction  among  the  nobility.  Biron,  whom  she  created 
duke  of  Courland,  was,  it  is  true,  a  better  lover  than  states- 
man, but  she  repaired  that  weakness  by  placing  an  intelli- 
gent theologian,  Ostermann,  a  native  of  Mark,  who  had  been 
compelled  to  flee  his  country  on  account  of  a  duel,  and  who 
had  been  the  instructor  of  her  youth,  at  the  head  of  diplo- 
matic affairs,  and  Miinnich,  a  nobleman  from  Oldenburg, 
who  had  fought  at  Malplaquet  and  had  afterward  planned 
the  great  Ladoga  canal  at  Petersburg,  a  man  remarkable 

1  On  the  occasion  of  this  wedding,  Peter  the  Great  had  all  the  dwarfs  in  his 
immense  empire  collected.  There  were  seventy-two  of  them.  The  two  ugliest 
were  comoelled  to  marry,  and  the  ceremony  was  performed  amid  the  jokes  and 
jeers  of  the  assembled  court. 


THE   RISE   OF   PRUSSIA  1337 

for  energy  and  activity,  at  the  head  of  the  army.  Both 
these  men  followed  in  the  footsteps  of  Peter  the  Great, 
snatched  Russia  from  her  ancient  state  of  incivilization  and 
developed  her  immeasurable  power  without  regard  for  the 
injury  they  might  thereby  inflict  upon  their  native  country. 
Munnich,  by  the  expulsion  of  Stanislaus  Lescinsky,  first  ren- 
dered Poland  dependent  upon  Russia.  He  also  gained  great 
victories  over  the  Turks  and  Tartars  and  extended  the  south- 
ern frontier  of  Russia.  An  insurrection  of  the  Russian  no- 
bility against  his  rule  and  that  of  Ostermann  was  powerfully 
and  prudently  quelled,  and  was  punished  by  numerous  exe- 
cutions and  sentences  of  banishment. 

The  Russian  nobility  speedily  revenged  themselves  on  the 
death  of  Anna  in  1740.  Anna's  sister,  Catherine,  duchess 
of  Mecklenburg,  left  a  daughter  Anna,  who  married  Antony 
Ulric,  duke  of  Brunswick.  Her  son,  Ivan,  then  two  months 
old,  was  elected  czar  and  placed  under  the  guardianship  of 
Biron  and  of  the  German  faction,  but,  in  the  following  year, 
the  Russians  raised  Elisabeth,  the  youngest  daughter  of  Peter 
the  Great,  to  the  throne,  banished  all  the  Germans,  Biron, 
Ostermann,  Munnich,  and  even  the  unoffending  duke,  An- 
tony Ulric,  to  Sibera,  and  allowed  the  youthful  Ivan  to  pine 
to  death  in  prison.  Elisabeth,  who  inherited  the  coarseness 
without  the  virtues  of  her  father,  gave  way  to  the  most  re- 
volting excesses  and  placed  the  administration  in  the  hands 
of  the  old  Russian  faction.1  She  was  succeeded,  in  1762, 
by  her  nephew,  Peter  III.,  the  son  of  her  sister,  Anna,  and 
of  Charles  Frederick,  duke  of  Holstein-Gottorp.  Peter  was 
a  German  both  by  birth  and  education  and  an  enthusiastic 
admirer  of  Frederick  the  Great.  The  German  exiles  were 
instantly  recalled  from  Siberia.     During  Biron's  banishment, 


1  Among  the  soldiers  of  the  guard,  all  of  whom  were  her  paramours,  and  to 
whose  attachment  she  mainly  owed  her  elevation  to  the  throne,  there  were,  how- 
ever, two  Germans,  the  musician,  Schwartz,  and  the  subaltern,  Grundstein, 
whom  she  especially  favored.  They  were  ennobled,  raised  to  high  rank  and 
granted  immense  possessions,  but  were  afterward  banished.  A  German  valet 
named  Sievers  was  also  created  count  of  the  empire  and  supreme  court  marshal 


1338  THE    HISTORY    OF    GERMANY 

Charles  of  Saxony  had  been  raised  by  Russian  influence  to 
the  government  of  Courland.  The  favors  showered  by  Peter 
upon  the  Germans,  numbers  of  whom  he  invited  into  the 
country  for  the  purpose  of  bestowing  upon  them  the  highest 
offices  in  the  army  and  in  the  state,  rendered  him  hateful  to 
the  Russian  nobility.  The  despotic  temper  he  had  inherited 
from  his  grandfather  and  his  contemptuous  treatment  of  his 
consort,  Catherine,  Princess  of  Anhalt-Zerbst,1  raised  ene- 
mies around  his  person,  and  Catherine,  an  imperious  and 
ambitious  woman,  placed  herself  at  the  head  of  the  con- 
spirators, took  him  prisoner  and  poisoned  him,  in  1762.' 
She  mounted  the  throne  of  Russia  under  the  name  of  Cath- 
erine II. ,  surrounded  herself  with  Russian  and  German  tal- 
ent, and,  in  imitation  of  Frederick  the  Great,  played  the 
philosopher  while  enacting  the  despot.  Her  most  celebrated 
ministers  and  generals  were  at  the  same  time  her  lovers: 
still,  notwithstanding  her  licentious  manners,  she  had  a 
highly  cultivated  mind  (she  corresponded  by  letter  with 
the  most  distinguished  savants  and  poets  of  Europe),  and 
discovered  equal  energy  and  skill  as  a  diplomatist.  By  the 
partition  of  Poland,  by  fresh  conquests  on  the  Turkish  fron- 
tier, and  by  her  encouragement  of  civilization  in  the  interior 
of  her  unwieldy  empire,  she  increased  the  power  of  Russia 
to  an  extraordinary  degree,  and  for  this  purpose  made  use 
of  a  multitude  of  Germans,  who  unceasingly  emigrated  to 
Russia,  there  to  seek  their  fortune.  Among  others,  her 
cousin  William  Augustus,  duke  of  Holstein-Gottorp,  studied 
navigation  on  board  the  Russian  fleet,  but,  falling  from  the 


1  An  alliance  had  formerly  been  attempted  to  be  formed  between  him  and 
Amelia,  the  daughter  of  Frederick  William  I.  of  Prussia,  but  had  been  prevented 
by  the  declaration  of  that  king  that  he  should  deem  himself  dishonored  by  her 
adoption  of  the  Greek  faith. 

8  She  had  borne  him  a  son,  whom  he  refused  to  acknowledge,  and  who  first 
mounted  the  imperial  throne  as  Paul  I.,  on  the  death  of  his  mother.  He  mar- 
ried, in  1776,  the  Princess  Dorothea  Augusta  Sophia  of  Wiirtemberg,  who,  on 
her  marriage,  was  robaptized  by  the  Greek  church,  Maria  Federowna.  She  be- 
came the  mother  of  the  emperors  Alexander  and  Nicolas,  of  the  granddukes  Con- 
stantino and  Michael,  of  Catherine,  queen  of  Wiirtemberg,  and  of  Anna,  Princess 
of  Orange. 


THE   RISE   OF  PRUSSIA  1339 

masthead,  when  sailing  in  the  Baltic,  was  drowned,  in 
1774.  Noble  German  families  from  Esthonia  and  Courland 
took  their  place  beside  the  ancient  Russian  nobility  in  all 
offices  civil  or  military.  German  savants  guided  the  in- 
ternal civilization  of  the  empire,  her  academies,  her  mines, 
that  ever  fruitful  source  of  Russia's  wealth.  German  intel- 
ligence was  in  every  direction  actively  employed  in  molding 
the  rude  natural  powers  of  the  country  and  of  the  people  into 
a  fearful  weapon  against  Germany. 

The  German  element  still  continued  to  preponderate  in 
the  German  provinces  on  the  Baltic,  Livonia,  Esthonia,  and 
Courland,  which,  either  at  an  earlier  or  at  the  present  period, 
fell  under  Russian  rule.  The  civil  privileges  of  the  cities, 
particularly  those  of  Riga,  solely  underwent  a  change.  The 
constitutions  of  the  free  towns  ill  accorded  with  the  Russian 
mode  of  government,  and,  in  1785,  were  forcibly  exchanged 
for  the  political  and  financial  regulations  of  the  governors. 
The  nobility  alone  retained  the  whole  of  its  ancient  privi- 
leges, owing  to  the  predominance  of  the  aristocratic  as  well 
as  that  of  the  autocratic  principle  in  Russia.  A  revolt  of 
the  Lettish  peasantry,  who  had  imagined  that  the  new 
crown-tax,  imposed  upon  them  by  the  government,  was  in- 
tended to  liberate  them  from  their  ancient  obligations  to  the 
native  German  nobility,  was  suppressed  by  force,  in  1783. 
Even  under  the  reign  of  the  emperor  Alexander,  Baron  Un- 
gern- Sternberg,  an  Esthonian  noble,  followed  the  profession 
of  the  robber- knights  of  old,  by  means  of  false  signals  drew 
ships  upon  sandbanks  and  rocks,  pillaged  them,  and  mur- 
dered those  of  the  crew  who  escaped  drowning.  He  was  at 
length  captured  and  condemned  to  the  mines.1 

'  Vide  Petri,  Pictures  of  Livonia  and  Esthonia,  a  rich  source  of  information 
Concerning  those  countries. 


1340  THE  HISTORY  OF  GERMANY 


CCXLI.    The  Minor  German  Courts 

While  Austria  and  Prussia  pursued  a  new  political  path 
under  Joseph  and  Frederick,  the  courts  of  minor  importance 
persevered  for  the  greater  part  in  their  ancient  course,  or 
sought  to  heighten  the  luxury  they  had  learned  from  Louis 
XIV.  by  imitating  the  military  splendor  of  Frederick  II. 
The  predilection  of  the  Prussian  monarch  for  the  French  lan- 
guage had,  moreover,  brought  it,  together  with  French  man- 
ners and  customs,  into  vogue  at  all  the  German  courts  and 
among  the  whole  of  the  German  nobility.  Every  young 
man  of  family  was  sent  to  Paris  to  finish  his  education,  to 
be  initiated  into  every  description  of  vice,  and  to  acquire  bon- 
ton,  as  it  was  termed,  all  of  which  they  were  assisted  on  their 
return  in  disseminating  throughout  Germany  by  French  am- 
bassadors, spies,  teachers  of  French  and  dancing,  barbers, 
and  governesses.1  The  use  of  the  German  language  was 
considered  a  mark  of  the  lowest  vulgarity.  French  alone 
was  tolerated.  And  it  was  by  this  perverted,  unpatriotic 
nobility  that  the  weak  princes  were  led  still  further  astray 
and  Germany  was  misgoverned. 

Augustus  III.  and  Bruhl  had,  after  the  peace  of  Huberts- 
burg,  returned  to  Saxony,  where,  unmoved  by  the  sufferings 
of  the  people  during  the  war,  they  continued  their  former 
luxurious  habits.  Their  first  business  was  a  splendid  repre- 
sentation of  Thalestris,  an  opera  composed  by  the  Princess 
Maria  Antonia.  Augustus  was  succeeded,  in  1763,  by 
Frederick  Augustus,  a  prince  morally  well-disposed,  whose 
sole  noxious  amusement  was  his  passion  for  the  chase,  so 
detrimental  to  the  peasantry.  He  was  also  devoid  of  the 
ambitious  pretension  of  grasping  at  the  crown  of  Poland- 

1  The  French  governesses  reproved  their  German  pupils  with,  "fi,  on  vous 
prendroit  pour  une  Allemande,"  or  said  in  their  praise,  "c'est  un  tresor  que  la 
Demoiselle.     Elle  ue  fait  pas  un  mot  d'Allemand." 


THE   RISE   OF  PRUSSIA  1341 

The  court  was,  nevertheless,  kept  up  from  habit  on  its  former 
extensive  scale,  while  the  diet  merely  served  as  a  protection 
to  the  overdrawn  privileges  of  the  nobility. 

Among  the  Saxon  duchies,  Weimar  presented  an  honor- 
able contrast  with  almost  all  the  other  petty  states.  The 
Duchess  Amalia  and  her  son,  Charles  Augustus,  formed  a 
court  like  that  of  Hermann,  the  venerable  Landgrave  of 
Thuringia,  an  assemblage  of  beaux  esprits.  Here  Wieland, 
Herder,  Goethe,  Schiller,  resided  beneath  the  most  liberal 
patronage  ever  granted  to  the  children  of  song.  Ernest, 
duke  of  Gotha,  although  also  highly  refined  in  his  tastes, 
dwelt  in  greater  seclusion.  The  dukes  of  Coburg  and  Hild- 
burghausen  were  overwhelmed  with  debt. 

In  Bavaria,  the  emperor,  Charles  VII. ,  left  a  debt  of 
forty  millions.  Maximilian  Joseph  was,  on  the  contrary, 
extremely  economical,  permitted  Sterzinger  to  attack  super- 
stition, the  Illuminati  to  spread  enlightenment,  and  attempted 
to  simplify  the  law  by  the  introduction  of  Kreitmayr's  new 
criminal  code,  which  was,  however,  still  too  deeply  imbued 
with  blood.  But,  while  Thurriegel,  the  Bavarian,  trans- 
formed the  Sierra  Morena  in  Spain  from  a  wilderness  into  a 
fertile  province,  the  soil  of  Bavaria  still  lay  partially  unre- 
claimed. The  bad  government  also  recommenced  under  her 
next  sovereign,  Charles  Theodore,  who  mounted  the  Bava- 
rian throne  in  1777.  This  prince  had,  at  an  earlier  period, 
held  a  splendid  court  at  Mannheim.  He  established  the  first 
German  theatre.  French  theatres  and  Italian  operas  had 
been  hitherto  solely  patronized  by  the  German  courts.  He 
also  greatly  enriched  the  picture  gallery  at  Diisseldorf.  His 
luxury  was  embellished  by  taste.  He  succeeded  to  Bavaria 
in  his  fifty-third  year.  In  order  to  satisfy  his  predilection 
for  the  Rhine,  he  offered  his  new  possession  for  sale  to  Aus- 
tria, and,  on  finding  himself  compelled  to  retain  it,  trans- 
ported his  luxurious  court  from  Mannheim  to  Munich.  Rum- 
ford,  an  Englishman,  embellished  the  latter  city  and  was  the 
inventor  of  the  celebrated  soup,  named  after  him,  for  the  poor, 
which  had  become  indeed  necessary,  the  misery  of  the  people 


1342  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

being  considerably  increased  by  the  badness  of  the  govern- 
ment. A  Countess  Torring-Seefeld  was  the  favorite  of  the 
elector,  who  was,  moreover,  governed  by  his  confessor,  the 
ex- Jesuit,  Frank,  who  also  conducted  the  great  persecution 
of  the  Illuminati.  Appointments  were  shamefully  sold; 
brutality  and  stupidity  were  the  characteristics  of  the  rul- 
ing powers;  the  oppression  was  terrible.  The  elector  was 
compelled  to  undertake  a  petty  campaign  against  a  bold 
robber,  the  notorious  Hiesel,  one  of  those  spirits  called  forth 
by  tyrannical  stupidity  on  the  part  of  a  government. — The 
Pfalzgraf  Charles,  of  the  collateral  line  of  Pfalz-Zweibriicken, 
commonly  resided  on  the  Carlsberg  near  Zweibrucken,  where 
he  kept  fifteen  hundred  horses,  and  a  still  greater  number  of 
dogs  and  cats,  which  required  the  attention  of  a  numerous 
household.  He  collected  upward  of  a  thousand  pipe-heads 
and  innumerable  toys.  Every  passer-by  was  compelled  to 
doff  his  hat  on  coming  in  sight  of  the  Carlsberg;  a  foreigner, 
ignorant  of  the  law,  was,  on  one  occasion,  nearly  beaten  to 
death. 

In  Wurtemberg,  the  duke,  Charles  Eugene,  reigned  from 
1744,  when  he  attained  his  majority,  until  1793.  He  was,  in 
many  respects,  extremely  remarkable.  Learned,  and  gifted 
with  taste  and  talent,  he  was  the  slave  of  luxury  and  vice. 
He  spent  enormous  sums  on  the  army.  He  sought  to  unite 
Louis  XIV.  and  Frederick  II.  in  his  own  person.  Educated 
in  the  academy  of  Frederick  the  Great  at  Berlin,  he  was,  on 
account  of  the  excellency  of  his  conduct,  declared  by  that 
monarch  fit  to  assume  the  reins  of  government,  in  his  sev- 
enteenth year;  but  he  had  no  sooner  returned  to  Stuttgard 
than,  with  his  friend  Count  Pappenheim,  he  committed  the 
most  boyish  acts  of  folly,  rousing  the  inhabitants  with  false 
cries  of  alarm  during  the  night,  and  throwing  hoops  over 
the  heads  of  those  who  ventured  to  peep  from  their  win- 
dows, etc.,  etc.  Frederick  II.  had  bestowed  upon  him  the 
hand  of  his  niece,  Elisabeth  Frederica  Sophia  of  Baireuth, 
notwithstanding  which  Charles  embraced  the  imperial  cause 
during  the  seven  years'  war,  in  order  to  bribe  the  empress 


THE   RISE   OF   PRUSSIA  1343 

and  the  imperial  Aulic  council  to  overlook  the  crimes  com- 
mitted by  him  against  his  country.  He  also,  at  that  time, 
accepted  enormous  sums  of  money  from  France,  trusting  to 
whose  support  he  divorced  his  guiltless  consort  on  a  craftily 
laid  charge  of  infidelity.  A  certain  Kieger  led  him  to  expend 
immense  sums  on  military  show.  The  best  artists  of  Eome 
and  Paris,  Jomelli,  Noverre,  Vestris,  were  in  his  pay.  He 
built  the  Solitude,  in  which  he  placed  a  complete  and  sepa- 
rate establishment,  with  a  church,  etc.,  on  a  forest-grown 
mountain,  and  rendered  the  whole  year  a  succession  of  fetes, 
operas,  ballets,  grandes  battues,  etc.,  etc.  Montmartin,  the 
prime  minister,  a  Frenchman,  who  treated  the  servile  Ger- 
mans with  the  scorn  they  so  richly  merited,  extorted  their 
money  by  the  most  barefaced  exactions  of  every  description, 
by  taxes,  by  the  sale  of  public  offices,  and  was  faithfully 
aided  by  Wittleder,  a  Thuringian,  who  had  come  into  the 
country  as  a  Prussian  subaltern  to  give  lessons  in  drilling, 
and  had  become  director  of  the  ecclesiastical  council  and 
enriched  himself  with  plundering  the  property  of  the  church. 
This  wretch,  who  was  authorized  to  sell  all  civil  appoint- 
ments, for  which  he  was  to  receive  ten  per  cent,  usually  said 
to  the  applicant,  "Give  the  duke  five  hundred  florins  and  me 
one  thousand!"  In  order  to  render  this  source  of  revenue 
still  more  lucrative,  he  created  a  number  of  new  appoint- 
ments and  rendered  affairs  so  uselessly  complex  that  the 
Wurtemberg  system  became  henceforward  a  proverbial 
nuisance. 

Wurtemberg  still  possessed  her  ancient  provincial  diet, 
but  its  power  was  sadly  crippled.  A  select  committee  had 
seized  the  whole  control  over  the  affairs  of  the  state,  which 
it  administered  in  secret  without  rendering  an  account  to  the 
people.  Montmartin' s  order  to  the  provincial  collectors,  Hoff- 
mann and  Staudlin,  to  deliver  up  to  him  the  whole  of  their 
funds,  first  roused  them  to  opposition.  The  duke,  however, 
surrounded  the  house  of  assembly  with  his  troops  and  seized 
the  whole  contents  of  the  treasury  in  1758.  The  author  of 
the  submissively  couched  protest  of  the  diet,  the  provincial 


1344  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

councillor,  John  Jacob  Moser,  the  best  head  and  the  honest- 
est  man  in  the  country,  was  arrested,  and  pined  unheard  for 
five  years  in  the  fortress  of  Hohentviel.  Montmartin  declared 
to  the  Estates,  "that  the  duke  was  far  too  lofty-minded  ever 
to  allow  laws  to  be  prescribed  to  him  by  people  like  them." 
He  established  a  great  lottery  in  1762,  compelled  the  peo- 
ple to  purchase  tickets,  and  sent  two  hundred  lots  for  sale  to 
the  diet,  and,  on  its  protesting  against  it,  the  drawing  of  the 
lottery  was,  in  defiance,  fixed  to  take  place  within  the  house 
of  assembly.  He  finally  projected  an  income-tax,  which 
drew  at  least  fifteen  kreutzers1  annually  from  the  most  in- 
digent among  the  population,  and  rose  at  an  equal  ratio. 
Huber,  the  grand  bailiff  of  Tubingen,  protested  against  this 
imposition.  A  deputation  of  the  citizens  hastened  into  the 
duke's  presence  and  represented  to  him  the  misery  of  the 
country.  His  only  reply  was  the  exclamation,  "Country! 
what  country?  I  am  the  country!"  and  an  order  for  the  in- 
stant march  of  several  regiments  into  Tubingen.  Huber 
and  the  most  respectable  among  the  citizens  were  carried 
prisoners  to  the  citadel,  and  the  tax  was  levied  by  force. 
The  Estates  carried  their  complaint  before  the  supreme  court 
of  judicature,  and,  owing  to  the  energetic  support  granted  to 
them  by  Frederick  II.,  gained  their  cause.  The  duke  was 
sentenced  by  the  imperial  Aulic  council  instantly  to  liberate 
Moser,  to  desist  from  every  species  of  violence,  and  within 
the  space  of  two  months  to  enter  into  a  constitutional  agree- 
ment with  the  Estates.  Moser  was  set  at  liberty. a  The  duke 
instantly  took  his  revenge  on  the  city  of  Stuttgard,  which  had 
sided  with  Tubingen,  by  migrating,  in  1764,  with  his  whole 
court  to  Ludwigsburg,  where  he  remained  for  several  years, 
deceiving  the  Estates  with  mock  promises  while  endeavor- 
ing, by  means  of  Montmartin,  whom  he  despatched  for  that 


1  About  fivepence  English  money. — Trans. 

5  Dann  of  Tubingen  and  other  members  of  the  diet  having  attempted  to  bring 
the  committee  of  the  testates  to  account  for  its  former  secret  and  arbitrary  pro- 
ceedings, concerning  which  Moser  had  it  in  his  power  to  give  full  information, 
the  committee  dreaded  his  liberation  and  would  willingly  have  prevented  it 


THE   RISE   OF  PRUSSIA  1345 

purpose  to  Vienna,  to  give  a  more  favorable  turn  to  his  cause. 
He  was,  however,  finally  compelled  to  obey  the  decision  of 
the  Aulic  council.  Montmartin  and  Wittleder  were  dis- 
missed; the  latter  was,  moreover,  deprived  of  a  large  sum 
of  money;  the  theatrical  corps  was  reduced  to  one-half,  and 
some  other  trifling  modes  of  economy  were  resolved  upon. 
The  hereditary  compact,  as  it  was  termed,  was  at  length 
concluded,  in  1771;  by  it,  the  power  of  the  duke  was  for 
the  future  to  be  restrained  within  constitutional  limits;  all 
the  servants  of  the  state  were  to  be  sworn  on  the  constitu- 
tion; the  nomination  of  foreigners  to  public  posts  was  to  be 
avoided;  the  ancient  mode  of  taxation  and  the  church  prop- 
erty were  to  be  restored;  the  army  was  to  be  diminished; 
several  noxious  monopolies  and  the  lotteries  were  to  be 
abolished;  the  game-laws  to  be  restricted;  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  forests,  which  had  been  dreadfully  thinned,  to  be 
spared.  The  duke,  nevertheless,  refused  to  accede  to  this 
compact  or  to  return  to  Stuttgard  until  the  Estates  and  the 
city  had  each  presented  him  with  a  sum  of  money.  He  had, 
moreover,  little  intention  to  keep  the  terms  of  compact. 
Money  was  again  extorted,  the  depredations  countenanced 
by  the  game-laws  were  carried  to  a  greater  extent  than  ever; 
every  transgression  was,  however,  winked  at  by  the  com- 
mittee, which  dreaded  the  convocation  of  a  new  diet,  by 
which  its  power  would  be  controlled.  For  twenty  years  the 
diet  had  not  sat,  and  the  committee  poured  into  the  ducal 
coffers  all  the  money  that  could  be  drawn  from  the  country, 
and,  among  other  things,  paid  the  duke  fifty  thousand  florins 
on  condition  of  his  not  forming  a  matrimonial  alliance  with 
an  Austrian  princess.  He  contracted  a  left-handed  mar- 
riage with  Francisca  von  Bernedin,  whom  he  created  Coun- 
tess von  Hohenheim,  and,  on  his  fiftieth  birthday,  in  1778, 
promised  in  a  naive  proclamation,  which  was  read  from 
every  pulpit  in  his  dominions,  henceforth  to  lead  a  better 
life  and  to  devote  himself  solely  and  wholly  to  the  welfare 
of  his  subjects.  The  committee,  deeply  moved  by  his  pro- 
testations, instantly  voted  him  a  sum  of  money,  with  which 


1346  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

he  built  the  magnificent  chateau  of  Bohenheim  for  his  bride. 
Records  of  every  clime  and  of  every  age  were  here  collected. 
A  Turkish  mosque  contrasted  its  splendid  dome  with  the 
pillared  Roman  temple  and  the  steepled  Gothic  church.  The 
castled  turret  rose  by  the  massive  Koman  tower;  the  low 
picturesque  hut  of  the  modern  peasant  stood  beneath  the 
shelter  of  the  gigantesque  remains  of  antiquity;  and  imita- 
tions of  the  pyramids  of  Cestius,  of  the  baths  of  Diocletian, 
a  Roman  senate- house  and  Roman  dungeons,  met  the  aston- 
ished eye.  The  pious-minded  prince  also  established  a  new 
lottery,  and,  in  1787,  in  order  to  raise  funds,  sold  a  thou- 
sand of  his  subjects  to  the  Dutch,  who  sent  them  to  the 
Indies,  whence  but  few  of  them  returned.  They  were,  more- 
over, cheated  of  their  legal  pay.  The  sale  of  public  appoint- 
ments also  recommenced.  The  duke  had,  since  1770,  occu- 
pied himself  with  the  Charles  College,  so  called  after  him, 
where  the  scholars,  who  were  kept  with  military  severity, 
received  excellent  instruction  in  all  the  free  sciences.  This 
academy  produced  many  men  of  talent.  The  curse  of  tyr- 
anny, nevertheless,  lay  over  the  country,  and  one  of  the 
students  belonging  to  the  academy,  the  great  Frederick 
Schiller,  grew  up  in  hatred  of  the  yoke  and  fled.  Schubart, 
an  older  and  equally  liberal  poet,  was  treacherously  seized 
and  confined  by  the  duke  for  ten  years  on  the  Hohenas- 
berg. 

In  Baden,  the  Margrave,  Charles  Frederick,  became  cele- 
brated for  the  mildness  and  beneficence  of  his  government. 
He  abolished  feudal  service  in  1783. 

In  Hesse- Cassel  reigned  the  Landgrave  Frederick,  who 
sought  to  raise  Cassel  to  a  residence  of  the  first  rank,  erected 
palaces  and  chateaux,  laid  out  pleasure-grounds,  founded 
academies,  immense  museums,  etc.,  and  was  ever  in  want 
of  money.  Among  other  public  nuisances,  he  established  a 
lottery,  and,  after  draining  the  purses  of  his  miserable  sub- 
jects, enriched  himself  by  selling  their  persons.  In  1776,  he 
concluded  a  treaty  with  England,  by  which  he  agreed  to 
furnish  twelve  thousand  Hessians   for  the   service  of   her 


THE   RISE   OF   PRUSSIA  1347 

colonies.'  Hesse-Cassel,  at  that  period,  merely  contained 
four  hundred  thousand  inhabitants.  English  commissioners 
visited  Cassel  and  examined  the  men  purchased  by  their 
government,  as  if  they  had  been  cattle  for  sale.  The  com- 
plaints of  parents  for  the  loss  of  their  sons  were  severely 
punished,  the  men  were  imprisoned,  the  women  sent  to  the 
penitentiary.  This  human  traffic  was  also  carried  on  during 
the  reign  of  George  William,  Frederick's  son  and  successor. 
The  last  Hessians  sent  to  the  colonies  were  four  thousand 
in  number,  in  1794.  The  celebrated  Seume  relates  in  his 
biography:  "No  one  was  at  that  time  safe  from  the  under- 
strappers of  this  trafficker  in  the  bodies  and  souls  of  men. 
Every  means  were  resorted  to:  persuasion,  cunning,  fraud, 
violence.  Foreigners  of  every  sort  were  seized,  thrown  into 
prison,  and  sold.  My  academical  inscription,  the  only  proof 
of  my  legitimation,  was  torn  to  pieces."  Seume  was  sent 
out  of  the  country  with  the  Hessians  to  fight  for  England 
against  the  Americans  during  the  war  of  independence.  His 
daily  recreation,  the  study  of  Horace,  attracted  the  attention 
of  his  superiors  and  he  was  made  sergeant.  An  enthusiastic 
republican,  he  was  compelled  to  serve  against  those  who  so 
gloriously  asserted  their  freedom  and  their  rights. — Hanau 
also  furnished  one  thousand  two  hundred;  Waldeck,  several 
hundred  German  slaves;  Wurtemberg,  Saxe-Gotha,  and  the 
bishop  of  Munster  followed  their  example.  Louis  IX.  of 
Hesse-Darmstadt,  the  best  drummer  in  the  holy  Eoman 
empire,  expired  in  1790. 

Frederick,  Margrave  of  Baireuth,  expended  the  whole 

1  "Almost  all  the  princes  are  marchands  cfhommes  for  the  powers  that  pay 
them  highest  for  the  men  and  take  them  on  the  easiest  conditions." — Memoires 
de  Feuquieres.  "A  couple  of  a  thousand  years  ago  it  was  said  of  the  Tyrians, 
'that  their  merchants  were  princes.'  We  can  say  with  equal  truth,  'our  princes 
have  become  merchants,  they  offer  everything  for  sale,  rank,  decorations,  titles, 
law,  and  justice,  and  even  the  persons  of  their  subjects.'  " — "There  is  a  Hes- 
sian prince  of  high  distinction.  lie  has  magnificent  palaces,  pheasant-preserves 
at  Willielmsbad,  operas,  mistresses,  etc.  These  things  cost  money.  He  has, 
moreover,  a  hoard  of  debls,  the  result  of  the  luxury  of  his  sainted  forefathers. 
What  does  the  prince  do  in  this  dilemma?  He  seizes  an  unlucky  fellow  in  tho 
street,  expends  lifty  dollars  on  his  equipment,  sends  him  out  of  the  country,  and 
gets  a  hundred  dollars  for  him  in  exchange." — Eueryelmer. 


1848  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

revenue  of  his  petty  territory  in  building,  in  theatres,  and 
fetes.  Frederick  II. ,  his  brother-in-law,  on  viewing  the 
splendid  plan  of  the  Hermitage,  observed,  "In  this  I  cannot 
equal  you."  He  died  in  1763,  without  issue,  and  Bai- 
reuth  fell  to  Alexander,  Margrave  of  Anspach,  who  was  com- 
pletely governed  by  his  mistress,  an  Englishwoman,  Lady 
Craven,  and  who  sold  fifteen  hundred  of  his  subjects  to  Eng- 
land for  colonial  service.  On  their  refusal  to  march,  he  sent 
them  out  of  the  country  in  chains.  His  frequent  travels,  in 
which  he  was  accompanied  by  Lady  Craven,  cost  the  coun- 
try enormous  sums,  and  he  at  length,  first  secretly,  then 
openly,  ceded  the  whole  territory,  together  with  its  inhabi- 
tants, to  Prussia.  The  Margraviate  would,  on  account  of 
the  failure  of  legitimate  issue,  independently  of  this  cession, 
have  reverted  to  the  Prussian  line.  The  excellent  adminis- 
tration of  the  minister,  Hardenberg,  had,  since  1792,  con- 
soled the  people  for  the  miseries  they  had  so  long  endured. 
Charles,  duke  of  Brunswick,  who  reigned  during  the 
seven  years'  war,  was  a  spendthrift,  paid  Niccolini,  the  bal- 
let-master, a  salary  of  thirty  thousand  dollars,  sold  his  sub- 
jects, and  was  ever  on  bad  terms  with  his  Estates.  His 
brothers,  Anthony  Ulric,  who  espoused  a  niece  of  Anna, 
empress  of  Russia,  and  whose  son  mounted  the  Russian 
throne,  Louis,  who  acquired  such  unpopularity  in  Holland, 
and  Ferdinand,  the  great  leader  in  the  seven  years'  war, 
gained  greater  celebrity.  Two  of  his  brothers  also  fell  dur- 
ing the  seven  years'  war,  Albert  at  Sorr,  Frederick  at  Hoch- 
kirch.  His  sister,  Elisabeth  Christina,  was  consort  to  Fred- 
erick I.  His  son  and  successor,  Ferdinand,  who  had  greatly 
distinguished  himself  in  the  field,  introduced  a  better  system. 
His  refined  and  cultivated  mind  and  benevolent  heart  ren- 
dered him  the  idol  of  the  Freemasons,  who  elected  him  their 
grand-master  in  (xermany.  His  court  was  constantly  visited 
by  foreigners  of  note.  He,  however,  evinced  too  great  par- 
tiality for  the  French. '    He  also  sold,  owing  to  his  connection 

1  On  one  occasion,  his  table  being  solely  occupied  by  French  guests,  one  of 
them  impudently  told  him  that  he  was  the  only  foreigner  present. 


THE   RISE   OF   PRUSSIA  1349 

with  England,  four  thousand  men  for  her  colonial  service. 
His  brother,  Frederick  Augustus,  came  into  possession  of 
(Els  in  right  of  his  wife,  a  princess  of  Wurtemberg.  His 
second  brother,  Leopold,  was  drowned,  in  1785,  in  a  flood 
at  Frankfort  on  the  Oder,  while  nobly  attempting  to  save 
the  lives  of  the  citizens. 

England  raised  troops  in  Hanover  and  sent  four  thousand 
men  to  Gibraltar,  while  the  Germans,  purchased  from  Hesse, 
etc.,  were  despatched  to  the  East  Indies,  there  to  gain  un- 
grateful laurels  in  the  war  with  Hyder  Ali  and  Tippoo  Saib. 
Hanover  was  governed  by  Field- marshal  Freitag,  who  intro- 
duced English  Toryism  into  Germany  and  gave  the  first  ex- 
ample of  the  ministerial  and  aristocratic  pride  now  almost, 
as  it  were,  hereditary  in  that  state.  Zimmermann,  a  Swiss 
physician,  a  man  distinguished  hitherto  for  the  liberality  of 
his  opinions,  was  transformed  into  a  servile  critic.  His  other 
distinguished  compatriots,  John  Muller  and  Girtanner,  also 
sold  themselves,  body  and  soul,  to  the  despotic  foreigner. 
The  elector,  George  III.,  sat  on  the  throne  of  England,  the 
slave  of  insolent  ministers  and  of  a  factious  mob.  His  life 
was  often  attempted  by  madmen.  His  own  mind  became 
at  length  affected.  He  was  also  afflicted  with  a  hereditary 
disorder  in  the  eyes,  and,  after  having  for  some  time  discov- 
ered indubitable  signs  of  mental  derangement,  entirely  lost, 
in  1811,  his  eyesight  and  his  senses.1  He  lived  until  1820 
in  complete  seclusion,  his  son  George,  who  succeeded  him  as 
George  IV.,  the  finest  gentleman,  the  most  immoral  charac- 
ter, and  the  greatest  monarch  of  his  times,  governing  in  his 
stead  as  Prince  Regent. 

Oldenburg  ceased,  in  1773,  to  be  a  province  of  Denmark 
and  became  one  of  Russia,  the  Holstein-Gottorp  branch  of 
the  ancient  house  of  Oldenburg,  reigning  in  Russia,  ceding 
Holstein  in  exchange  to  the  branch  of  that  house  on  the 

1  His  mental  malady,  which  had  been  for  some  time  suspected,  was  placed 
beyond  all  doubt  by  his  address  to  the  House  on  opening  parliament,  which  he 
gravely  commenced  with  the  words — "My  lords,  gentlemen,  and  woodcocks, 
cocking  up  your  tails!"  and  proceeded  without  a  single  deviation  through  the 
remainder  of  the  speech. 


1350  THE   HISTORY  OF   GERMANY 

throne  of  Denmark.  Oldenburg  was  created  a  duchy  by 
the  Russian  czar,  and  declared  the  hereditary  property  of 
Frederick  Augustus,  prince  of  Holstein.  Germany  suffered 
another  loss  by  the  reannexation  of  Holstein  to  Denmark. 
Peter,  the  only  son  of  the  duke,  was  tormented  by  religious 
scruples  and  fled  from  his  bride,  the  Princess  Sophia  of 
Darmstadt,  on  their  wedding-day.  He  became  completely 
deranged,  and  was  finally  compelled  to  yield  the  reins  of 
government  to  his  cousin,   Peter  Frederick  Louis. 

The  most  terrible  abuses  were  committed  in  the  minor 
states,  where  they  attracted  less  notice.  Count  William  von 
Schaumburg-Lippe,  who  gained  great  distinction  as  field- 
marshal  in  the  Portuguese  service  and  was  in  his  own  coun- 
try honored  as  the  father  and  benefactor  of  his  people,  offers 
an  honorable  exception.  The  rest  of  the  petty  princes  imi- 
tated the  extravagance  of  their  more  powerful  neighbors. 
Frederick  Augustus  of  Anhalt-Zerbst  dissipated  the  revenue 
of  his  petty  territory  in  France,  never  returned  home,  and 
forbade,  under  pain  of  punishment,  petitions  to  be  sent  to 
him.  Haase,  the  privy-councillor,  governed  in  his  stead, 
and  shamelessly  defrauded  the  people  by  artfully  multiply- 
ing his  offices  to  such  a  degree  that  Sintenis,  the  author, 
for  instance,  was  compelled  to  appeal  from  Haase,  the  privy- 
councillor,  through  Haase,  the  privy-councillor,  to  Haase, 
the  privy-councillor.  He  also  sold  twelve  hundred  men  for 
the  service  of  the  English  colonies.  Frederick  Augustus,  on 
learning  the  execution  of  the  French  king,  refused  to  take 
food  and  died  in  great  mental  agony.  In  Anhalt-Bernburg, 
the  peasantry  rebelled  on  account  of  the  devastation  caused 
by  the  strict  protection  of  the  game,  1752.  Charles  William 
of  Nassau  beat  a  peasant,  accused  of  poaching,  to  death 
with  his  own  hand,  and  was  in  consequence  banished  by 
Joseph  II.  for  some  years  from  his  own  dominions. 

The  follies  perpetrated  in  almost  all  the  petty  countships, 
several  of  which  were  gradually  raised  to  principalities,  are 
perfectly  incredible.  Barons  of  the  empire  even  held  a  petty 
court  and  aped  the  pretensions  and  titles,  nay,  the  military 


THE   RISE    OF  PRUSSIA  1351 

show  of  their  powerful  neighbors.  A  Count  von  Limburg- 
Styrum  kept  a  corps  of  hussars,  which  consisted  of  one 
colonel,  six  officers,  and  two  privates.  There  were  court- 
councillors  attached  to  the  smallest  barony  belonging  to  the 
empire,  and,  in  Franconia  and  Swabia,  the  petty  lords  had 
their  private  gallows,  the  symbol  of  high  jurisdiction.  These 
vanities  were  however  expensive,  and  the  wretched  serfs, 
whose  few  numbers  rendered  the  slightest  impost  burden- 
some, were  compelled  to  furnish  means  for  the  lavish  ex- 
penditure of  their  haughty  lords.1 

The  ecclesiastical  courts  had  long  fallen  into  the  lowest 
depths  of  depravity.  Their  temporal  luxury  had  increased. 
Frederick  Charles,  of  the  family  of  Erthal,  elector  of  May- 
ence,  acted  the  part  of  a  Leo  X. ,  patronized  the  arts  and  sci- 
ences, but  lived  so  openly  with  his  mistresses  that  Mayence, 
infected  by  the  example  of  the  court,  became  a  den  of  in- 
famy.3 The  ecclesiastical  princes  plainly  perceived  the  im- 
possibility of  the  restoration  of  ancient  episcopal  simplicity., 
and,  unconscious  of  their  approaching  fall,  pursued  a  com- 
mon plan,  that  of  rounding  off  their  territories  (Cologne  had 
already  annexed  to  itself  Munster ;  Mayence,  Worms;'  Treves, 

1  Vide  the  account  of  these  miniature  courts  in  Weber's  Democritus. 

2  "Incredible  things  take  place  here  in  Mayence.  A  prize  thesis,  in  proof 
of  the  excellency  of  celibacy,  has  just  been  proposed  by  a  prince,  around  whose 
throne  stand  three  mistresses. " — Letters  of  a  travelling  Bane.  "I  saw  the  elector 
in  his  box  at  the  theatre,  surrounded  by  ladies  in  full  dress,  whom  I  was  told 
were  actually  court-ladies,  court- ladies  of  an  archbishop  1 — On  Dalberg's  nomina- 
tion as  coadjutor  to  the  archbishopric,  a  triumphal  arch  was  erected  in  his  honor 
with  the  inscription  'Immortalitati"  in  a  transparency.  Either  accidentally  or 
purposely  the  letter  t  in  the  third  syllable  was  omitted." — Travels  of  a  French 
Emigrant.  "On  the  publication  of  Heinse's  obscene  romance,  Ardinghello,  the 
archbishop  sent  him  twenty  louis  d'or,  and  appointed  him  his  lecturer.  A  Jew 
at  Mayence  kept  a  subscription  library,  full  of  the  most  immoral  and  licentious 
works,  under  the  protection  of  the  police. " — Remarks  on  a  Journey  from  Stras- 
bourg to  the  Baltic.  The  archbishops  were  kept  in  countenance  by  the  aristo- 
cratic canons,  who  accumulated  benefices  to  such  a  degree  that  one  of  the  pro- 
vosts of  the  cathedral,  for  instance,  a  Count  von  Elz,  drew  an  annual  income  of 
Beventy-five  thousand  goldens  from  the  church.  The  Favorite,  a  chateau  built  in 
the  French  style,  was  erected  by  the  elector  Lothar  Francis  von  Stadion. — Lang's 
Travels  on  the  Rhine,  1805. 

a  In  this  city  there  was  not  a  pretty  girl  who  had  not  been  either  "niece  or 
sister"  to  some  ecclesiastic.  The  peasants  here  also  rebelled  on  account  of 
the  game-laws.     Vide  Travels  of  a  Female  Emigrant. 


1352  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

Augsburg,1  and  Wurzburg,  Bamberg),  and,  as  a  next  step, 
declaring  themselves,  like  the  Gallic  church,  independent  of 
Rome.  Since  the  expulsion  of  the  Jesuits,  they  had  the  im- 
perial house  (in  Cologne,  Joseph's  brother  Maximilian  be- 
came, in  1780,  coadjutor  and  shortly  afterward  archbishop 
elector)  and  the  enlightenment  of  the  age,  moreover,  on  their 
side.  As  early  as  1763,  Hontheim,  the  suffragan- bishop  of 
Treves,  had,  under  the  name  of  Justus  Febronius,  published 
a  work  "concerning  the  state  of  the  church  and  the  legal 
power  of  the  pope,"  which  had  excited  general  attention, 
and,  in  1785,  the  German  archbishops  in  the  congress  of 
Bad  Ems  had,  notwithstanding  the  opposition  raised  by 
Pacca,  the  papal  legate  (the  same  who,  at  a  later  period 
under  Napoleon,  accompanied  the  pope  into  exile),  attacked 
the  primacy  of  Rome,  the  false  decretals  of  Isidore,  and  all 
the  rights  so  long  exercised  by  the  pope  over  the  German 
church,  on  the  grounds  set  forth  in  that  work.  Eybel's 
work,  "Quid  est  Papa?"  was  condemned  by  a  papal  bull. 
The  ecclesiastical  states  were,  if  possible,  worse  admin- 
istered than  the  temporal  ones.  The  proverb  "It  is  good 
to  dwell  beneath  the  crosier"  was  no  longer  verified.  The 
people  were  oppressed  and  reduced  to  the  most  abject  Pov- 
erty. The  bishop  of  Munster  sold  his  subjects  to  heretical 
England.  And  yet  this  bishop,  Francis  Frederick  William 
von  Furstenberg,3  was  celebrated  for  his  learning  and 
founded  the  Munster  university,  1773,  at  the  time  of 
the  expulsion  of  the  Jesuits.  The  Baron  von  Brabeck, 
a  member  of  the  diet,  opposed  the  bad  government  of 
Francis  Egon,  Count  von  Furstenberg,  of  the  Swabian  line, 
Bishop  of  Hildesheim,  but  was  persecuted  as  a  revolutionist. 
The  bishop  of  Spires,  who  was  on  bad  terms  with  his  chap- 


1  A  governor  of  Augsburg  arrested  all  pedestrian  travellers  and  sold  them 
to  the  Prussian  recruiting  sergeants. — Schlozer. 

9  Of  the  Westphalian  baronial  family.  He  published  the  Monumenta  Pader- 
bornensia  immediately  on  his  nomination  to  the  bishopric  of  Paderborn.  Schlozer 
quotes  a  curious  episcopal  rescript  of  1183,  concerning  the  preservation  of  game 
and  t  kt  punishment  of  poachers. 


THE   RISE   OF  PRUSSIA  1353 

ter,  constantly  resided  at  his  chateau  at  Bruchsal.1  The 
bishop  of  Liege  was  expelled  by  a  popular  outbreak,  caused 
by  the  great  revenue  drawn  by  him  from  the  gaming  tables 
established  at  Spa — a  scandalous  mode  of  increasing  his 
income,  against  which  the  Estates  had  vainly  protested. 
Philip,  elector  of  Treves,  built,  in  1763,  the  chateau  of 
Philippsfreude,  besides  the  sumptuous  residence  at  Coblentz. 
Clement  Augustus,  the  luxurious  archbishop  of  Cologne, 
built  the  royal  residence  at  Bonn,  the  chateaux  of  Poppels- 
dorf,  Bruhl,  and  Falkenlust.  His  successor,  Maximilian 
Frederick,  expended  the  confiscated  wealth  of  the  Jesuits 
more  usefully  in  the  foundation  of  an  academy.  Bonn  re- 
mained, notwithstanding,  the  abode  of  luxury.  The  last 
elector,  Maximilian  Francis,  brother  to  Joseph  II.,  kept  one 
hundred  and  twenty-nine  chamberlains. — Joseph,  bishop  of 
Passau,  one  of  the  Auersperg  family,  built  a  theatre  and  the 
chateau  of  Freudenhayn,  where  he  expired  in  1795.  The 
French  clergy  were  still  more  depraved.  Cardinal  Bohan, 
bishop  of  Strasburg,  carried  an  innocent  girl  away  from  her 
parents  and  kept  her,  together  with  several  others,  impris- 
oned in  his  harem  at  Zabern.  She  escaped,  and,  although  a 
regular  search  after  her  was  set  on  foot  throughout  the  coun- 
try, did  not  again  fall  into  his  hands.  The  matter,  however, 
excited  such  general  indignation  that  he  was  compelled  to 
take  refuge  in  Paris,  where  he  courted  the  queen,  Marie 
Antoinette,  and  was  mixed  up  with  the  celebrated  story  of 
the  necklace.2  The  whole  of  the  upper  clergy  battened  on 
the  sufferings  of  the  people.  The  popular  saying,  "Where 
you  see  people  with  their  clothes  worn  out  at  the  elbow,  you 
are  on  church  property;  where  you  see  people  with  their 
clothes  worn  out  beneath  the  arm,  you  are  in  a  temporal 
state,"  truly  tells  the  difference  existing  between  temporal 
and  ecclesiastical  principalities. — The  statistics  of  the  monas- 
teries abolished  by  Joseph  II.  demonstrate  how  the  monks 

1  "Never  was  a  shepherd  less  careful  of  his  flock,  never  was  there  a  flock 
less  attached  to  its  shepherd!"—  Travels  of  a  Female  Emigrant. 
8  See  Rieiu's  Journey  through  France. 

Germany.     Vol.  III. — 19 


1354  THE  HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

and  nuns  feasted  on  the  sweat  of  the  people.  In  the  Clarisser 
nunnery  were  found  nine  hundred  and  nineteen  casks  of 
wine,  in  the  Dominican  nunnery  at  Imbach  three  thousand 
six  hundred  and  fifty-five,  and  in  the  establishment  of  can- 
onesses  at  Himmelporten  as  many  as  six  thousand  eight 
hundred.  The  people  in  the  ecclesiastical  states  were  totally 
uneducated,  stupid,  and  bigoted.  In  1789,  the  populace  of 
Cologne  attempted  to  assassinate  all  the  Protestant  inhabi- 
tants on  account  of  the  intention  of  the  imperial  Aulic  coun- 
cil to  grant  to  them  liberty  of  conscience. — Frederick,  duke 
of  York,  the  second  son  of  George  III.  of  England,  was, 
in  1764,  when  six  months  old,  created  bishop  of  Osna- 
bruck,  which  was  alternately  governed  by  a  Catholic  and 
a  Lutheran  bishop.  During  his  administration,  a  socman 
was  condemned  to  draw  the  plow  for  life  for  having  ven- 
tured to  box  a  steward's  ears  for  taking  his  afiianced  bride 
from  him  by  force  and  bestowing  her  on  another. ' 

Alsace  and  Lorraine  fell  beneath  the  intolerable  despot- 
ism exercised  by  the  French  court  in  unison  with  the  de- 
generate clergy  and  nobility.  Strasburg  was,  in  the  most 
shameless  manner,  plundered  by  the  pretor,  Klinglin.  On 
the  visit  of  Louis  XV.,  in  1744,  to  that  city,  he  compelled 
the  citizens  to  paint,  ornament,  and  illuminate  their  houses, 
to  wear  curious  uniforms,  according  to  their  rank  and  trades, 
arranged  the  women  and  children  in  fantastical  troops  of 
shepherdesses  and  Swiss,  caused  the  fountains  to  flow  with 
wine,  and  strictly  prohibited  the  presence  of  sick,  diseased, 
or  poor  persons,  for  the  purpose  of  impressing  the  monarch 
with  the  wealth  and  prosperity  of  the  people.  Schopflin,  the 
author  of  Alsatia  illustrata,  had  on  this  occasion  the  mean- 
ness to  address  the  cowardly,  dull-witted,  luxurious  king, 
who,  to  the  scandal  of  his  subjects,  was  openly  accompanied 
by  his  mistress,  the  Marquise  de  Pompadour,  and  whose  un- 
principled government  mainly  brought  about  the  French 
Eevolution,  as  "the  father  of  the  country,  the  patron  of  the 


1  See  Schlozer's  State  Archives. 


THE   RISE   OF   PRUSSIA  1355 

muses,  the  liberator  of  Alsace,  and  a  great  hero."  Friese, 
in  his  excellent  history  of  Strasburg,  exclaims,  "The  fine, 
honest  character  of  the  people  of  Strasburg  had  within  the 
last  sixty-three  years  (the  period  of  their  submission  to  the 
French  yoke)  indeed  deeply  degenerated!"  The  whole  of 
the  festivities  on  the  occasion  of  this  royal  visit  were  at  the 
expense  of  the  impoverished  city,  which,  moreover,  paid  an 
annual  tax  of  one  million  livres  to  the  royal  exchequer. 
Klinglin  and  Paul  Bek,  the  administrators  of  the  public  rev- 
enues, also  filled  their  own  purses,  sold  the  town  property, 
the  forests,  appointments,  and  justice  to  the  highest  bidder, 
and  were  at  length  only  dismissed  from  office  by  the  skill 
with  which  Gail,  the  mayor,  Faber,  the  chief  magistrate, 
and  other  patriotic  citizens,  took  advantage  of  a  dispute  be- 
tween the  minister,  d'Argenson,  with  Sillery,  the  intendant 
of  Alsace.  Klinglin  died  in  prison,  1753;  Bek  was  branded 
and  sent  to  the  galleys. 

Lorraine,  Alsace,  Switzerland,  and  Holland  were  not  only 
excluded  from  the  rest  of  Germany,  but  the  states  still  ap- 
pertaining to  the  empire  were  also  closed  one  against  the 
other.  Bad  roads,1  a  wretched  postal  system,2  senseless  pro- 
hibitions3 in  regard  to  emigration  or  to  marrying  out  of  the 
country,  as,  for  instance,  in  the  bishopric  of  Spires,  and, 
more  than  all,  the  incredible  number  of  inland  duties, 
checked  the  natural  intercourse  of  the  Germans.  From 
Germersheim  to  Rotterdam  there  were  no  fewer  than  twenty- 
nine  custom-houses,  at  all  of  which  vessels  were  stopped  for 
dues;  between  Bingen  and  Coblentz  alone  there  were  seven. 

1  From  Stuttgard  to  Tubingen,  now  half  a  day's  post,  two  days  were  formerly 
requisite.  People  prepared  with  the  greatest  anxiety  for  a  journey  to  the  near- 
est towns.  Bad  roads  and  overturned  carriages  play  a  prominent  part  in  the 
romances  of  the  time. 

*  Vide  the  complaints  concerning  it  in  Schldzer's  state-papers. 

3  For  instance,  in  Bavaria.  Whoever  attempted  to  induce  others  to  emigrate 
was  hauged,  1764. — History  of  Nuremberg. 


1356  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 


CCXLIL    The  Last  Days  of  the  Empire 

The  dissolution  of  the  German  empire  approached.  The 
princes,  powerful  or  weak,  great  or  petty,  had  each  assumed 
sovereign  sway.  The  bond  of  union  between  them  and  the 
empire  became  daily  more  and  more  fragile.  Eatisbon,  al- 
though still  the  seat  of  the  diet,  was  no  longer  visited  by  the 
emperor  or  by  the  princes.  All  affairs  of  moment  were 
transacted  by  the  courts  of  Vienna,  Berlin,  Munich,  etc. ; 
the  members  of  the  diet  occupied  themselves  with  empty 
formalities,  such  as  precedence  at  table,  the  color,  form,  and 
position  of  their  seats  in  the  diet,  concerning  which  no  fewer 
than  ten  official  documents,  in  settlement  of  a  dispute,  ap- 
peared in  1748.  At  a  congress  held  at  Offenbach  in  1740, 
the  petty  princes  made  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  place 
themselves  on  an  equality  with  the  electors  and  to  interfere 
with  the  election  of  the  emperor.  The  collegium  of  the  im- 
perial free  towns,  whenever  it  ventured  upon  opposition,  was 
generally  outvoted  at  the  diet  by  those  of  the  princes  and 
electors,  and  had  lost  all  its  influence.  Wetzlar  was  still  the 
seat  of  the  imperial  chamber,  which  was  also  far  from  guar- 
anteeing the  slightest  legal  protection  to  the  German  people, 
and  which  became  gradually  more  completely  absorbed  with 
formalities,  in  proof  of  which  a  single  example  suffices,  the 
lawsuit  brought  before  it,  in  1549,  by  the  city  of  Geln- 
hausen,  which  was  not  terminated  until  1734.  Cramer  has 
filled  one  hundred  and  twenty-eight  volumes  (Wetzlar  Leis- 
ure-hours) with  the  most  important  lawsuits  of  the  empire, 
which  are  only  striking  on  account  of  their  extreme  un- 
importance. The  same  may  be  said  of  the  imperial  Aulic 
council  at  Vienna.  Prince  Colloredo,  the  imperial  vice- 
chancellor,  when  complaints  against  the  unjust  imprisonment 
of  Moser,  the  councillor  of  the  diet  of  Wurtemberg,  were 
brought  before  the  imperial  chamber,  sent  directions  to 
Wetzlar  for  their  suppression. '     The  imperial  Aulic  council 

1  Moser,  Political  Truths. 


THE   RISE   OF   PRUSSIA  1357 

was  equally  suborned;  in  1765,  one  of  the  members  declared 
at  Prince  Colloredo's  table,  "that  no  proceedings  could  be 
taken  against  Louis  IX.,  Landgrave  of  Hesse,  for  the  sake 
of  a  couple  of  Frankfort  merchants."  All  the  complaints 
made  against  this  luxurious  despot  by  his  creditors  were,  in 
fact,  unheeded,  nor  was  it  until  1779  that  his  creditors  were 
half  satisfied  by  a  composition.  When,  in  1729,  the  youth- 
ful son  and  heir  of  one  of  the  lords  of  Aufsess  in  Franconia 
was  carried  by  force  to  Bamberg  and  by  threats  and  ill- 
treatment  compelled  to  embrace  Catholicsm,  his  mother, 
who  had  narrowly  escaped  sharing  his  fate,  filled  the  empire 
with  her  cries  for  justice  and  vengeance,  the  imperial  Aulic 
council  passed  a  verdict  in  her  favor — which  was  never  car- 
ried into  effect.  Joseph  II.,  moved  by  the  petitions  of  his 
people,  was  the  first  who  attempted  to  restore  power  and 
dignity  to  the  general  courts  of  judicature  throughout  the 
empire,  but  his  intended  visitation  fell  to  the  ground,  and 
all  remained  as  before.  The  imperial  army,  an  assemblage 
of  small,  and  extremely  small,  contingents,  had,  more  espe- 
cially since  the  seven  years'  war,  naturally  become  an  object 
of  ridicule.  A  petty  prince  or  count  furnished  the  lieuten- 
ant, another  the  captain,  a  monastery  furnished  the  horse- 
soldier,  a  nunnery  the  horse;  a  most  remarkable  diversity  in 
weapons  and  uniforms  naturally  resulted  from  the  subdivis- 
ion of  the  empire  into  petty  states. 

The  power  no  longer  lay  in  the  organization  of  the  em- 
pire and  with  the  Estates,  but  solely  in  the  new  principalities 
and  their  bureaucratic  governments.  All  the  great  states  of 
Germany  were  first  formed  on  a  French,  afterward  on  a 
Prussian  model.  From  Louis  XIV.  the  princes  learned  des- 
potism, the  art  of  rendering  the  Estates,  the  nobility,  the 
church,  and  the  cities  subservient  to  their  will;  from  Freder- 
ick II.  they  acquired  a  regulated  form  of  government,  the 
art  of  concentrating  the  power  of  the  state  in  the  finances 
and  in  the  army,  in  which  the  French  system  was  far  sur- 
passed by  that  of  Prussia.  In  France,  the  convenient  sys- 
tem of  farming  the  state  prevailed;  all  the  offices  of  state 


1358  THE   HISTORY    OF    GERMANY 

were  either  sold  or  farmed,  which  consequently  gave  rise  to 
a  competition,  that  raised  the  prices  of  the  offices,  between 
the  government  and  the  officers,  who  sought  to  reimburse 
themselves  by  increasing  the  burdens  of  the  people.  In  Ger- 
many, the  more  honest,  but  at  the  same  time  more  trouble- 
some, system  of  control  prevailed.  The  systematic  love  for 
detail  characteristic  of  the  German  gave  rise  to  that  artifi- 
cial bureaucracy  or  supremacy  of  the  clerk's  office,  which, 
under  the  name  of  the  "strictest  justice,  has  perhaps  proved 
the  most  oppressive  of  tyrannies.  The  ministry,  actuated 
by  a  pure  love  of  justice  or  by  paternal  solicitude,  ere  long 
sought  to  know  and  to  guide  everything  from  the  palace 
down  to  the  lowest  peasant's  hut;  the  want  of  money  also 
obliged  them  to  make  themselves  acquainted  with,  to  watch, 
and  to  tax  the  smallest  source  of  private  revenue;  these  sys- 
tematic heads  were  ere  long  merely  occupied  with  regulating 
and  filling  in  their  registers,  as  if  the  state  solely  existed  in 
their  tables,  and  finally,  increasing  political  agitation  height- 
ened the  power  of  the  police,  by  whom  the  system  of  espion- 
age was  carried  to  the  greatest  extreme. 

Besides  the  new  and  Argus-eyed  governments,  shadows 
of  diets  still  existed  in  Wurtemberg,  Saxony,  Mecklenburg, 
Anhalt,  Lippe,  and  Reuss.  The  nobility  were  everywhere 
still  extremely  powerful,  but  solely  by  means  of  the  posts 
held  by  them  at  court,  in  the  government  and  army.  Their 
personal  privileges  had  increased  at  the  expense  of  their 
political  and  corporate  rights.  The  cities  had  also  lost  all 
political  power,  but  the  citizens  had  begun  by  their  talents 
to  gain  an  influence  in  the  service  of  the  state.  The  peas- 
antry were  almost  more  oppressed  by  the  new  system  of  tax- 
ation than  they  had  formerly  been  by  the  nobility,  and  were 
universally  poor  and  harassed;  the  government,  neverthe- 
less, gradually  released  them  from  their  feudal  bonds,  pro- 
moted the  progress  of  enlightenment,  and  by  so  doing  pre- 
pared them  for  a  complete  emancipation  from  their  yoke. 

The  church  played  a  most  lamentable  part.  While  in  the 
Catholic,  more  particularly  in  the  petty  states,  the  influence 


THE   RISE   OF   PRUSSIA  1359 

of  the  Jesuits  was  preserved  by  the  childlike  piety  and  su- 
perstitious belief  of  the  people,  by  fetes  and  processions, 
mummeries,  etc.,1  the  ecclesiastical  princes,  as  has  been 
already  shown,  gave  way  to  the  most  open  profligacy,  and 
Eome  was  deprived  of  her  ancient  support  in  the  German 
empire  by  the  abolition  of  the  order  of  Jesus,  by  the  reforms 
of  Joseph  II. ,  and  by  the  congress  of  Ems.  The  church  had 
never  been  so  powerless. — The  princes  exercised  increased 
jurisdiction  over  the  Lutheran  and  Reformed  churches  with- 
in their  demesnes.  The  sovereign  possessed  the  jus  majes- 
taticum  circa  liturgiam,  that  is,  the  triple  right;  first,  of 
granting  the  free  exercise  of  religion  according  to  a  certain 
confession  of  faith,  the  jus  concedendi;  second,  of  internal 
inspection  (inspectio);  third,  of  external  protection  (advo- 
catio). 

In  Lutheran  Saxony,  where  the  sovereign  belonged  to 
the  Catholic,  in  Lutheran  Prussia,  to  the  Reformed,  church, 
these  princes  for  some  time  granted,  from  a  political  motive, 
full  liberty  to  the  Lutheran  clergy,  and,  in  order  to  avoid 
raising  any  unnecessary  excitement  among  the  people,  but 
little  interfered  with  ecclesiastical  affairs.     The  new  system 

1  The  largest  collection  of  these  religious  mummeries  is  to  be  met  with  in  the 
numerous  works  of  the  Illuminati  and  in  Weber's  "Germany."  Religion  had 
degenerated  to  childish  ceremonies.  The  Mother  of  God  was  dressed  up  like  a 
doll  in  order  to  appear  in  gala  on  festive  occasions.  Pretty  girls  appeared  on 
asses  in  processions  as  living  Madonnas,  and  doves  were  let  loose  in  the  churches 
as  living  representatives  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  On  the  great  pilgrimages  of  the 
people  of  Mayence,  Fulda,  and  Eichsfeld,  to  Waldthiiren,  the  priest  bearing  the 
pyx  was  received  with  due  solemnity  by  a  well-dressed  angel,  who  delivered  an 
oration. — Schlozer's  State  Archives.  In  1790,  the  procession  of  blood,  an  an- 
cient ceremony  performed  by  all  the  authorities  and  inhabitants  of  the  neighbor- 
hood, was  solemnized  at  Constance;  seven  thousand  horsemen,  bearing  naked 
swords  and  rosaries,  accompanied  a  drop  of  the  Saviour's  blood  around  the  tields 
for  the  purpose  of  preserving  them  against  injury  from  the  weather.  Vide  Swa- 
bian  Mercury,  1838.  Religious  comedies  with  allegorical  representations,  pil- 
grimages, processions  of  brotherhoods  in  honor  of  particular  saints,  were  all  cal- 
culated upon  as  means  of  working  upon  the  senses  of  the  multitude,  who,  on 
these  occasions,  usually  gave  way  to  unbounded  license.  The  pilgrimages  were 
especially  notorious  for  immoral  results.  The  numerous,  well-fed,  and  idle  clergy 
contrived  by  means  of  ceremonies  of  this  nature  to  creep  into  houses  and  to  se- 
duce the  innocent  and  unwary.  No  domestic  affair  could  be  arranged  without 
tine  interference  of  a  priest.  They  blessed  the  stable,  the  table  and  the  bed,  the 
field  and  the  cattle,  even  the  daily  food,  etc. ,  cte. 


1360  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

had,  however,  scarcely  come  into  play,  than  Frederick  Wil- 
liam I.  made  a  powerful  attack  upon  the  church,  convoked 
a  synod  of  the  whole  of  the  Prussian  clergy,  1737,  at 
Koslin,  regulated  the  Lutheran  service  by  cabinet  orders, 
abolished  the  use  of  tapers,  white  dresses  for  the  choristers, 
etc. ,  the  collection  of  money  within  the  church ;  placed  re- 
strictions on  the  administration  of  the  holy  sacrament,  as, 
for  instance,  to  the  impenitent,  and  even  prescribed  rules  for 
preaching.  The  whole  of  his  decrees  were  calculated  for  the 
promotion  of  religion  and  morality.  His  son,  Frederick  II., 
acted  with  equal  despotism  but  with  a  contrary  purpose. 
His  object  was  to  relax,  not  to  heighten,  religious  austerity. 
With  this  intent,  he  neutralized  one  confession  of  faith  by 
the  other  by  tolerating  them  all  and  by  encouraging  modern 
French  infidelity  by  his  known  principles  and  by  his  writ- 
ings. With  this  intent,  he  abolished  his  father's  ordinances, 
permitted  all  who  chose  to  carry  tapers  and  to  wear  white 
robes,  while  all  confessions  were  equally  the  objects  of  his 
ridicule.  On  the  introduction  of  a  new  psalm-book,  against 
which  several  of  the  communes  protested,  by  the  consistory 
in  1780,  he  wrote,  "Everybody  may  do  as  he  chooses  in  this 
matter;  every  one  is  at  liberty  to  sing,  'Now  may  all  the  for- 
ests rest,'  or  any  other  silly  thing  that  may  suit  his  taste." 
With  this  intent,  he  abolished  public  penance  in  churches, 
and  essentially  restricted  the  power  of  the  church  in  award- 
ing punishment  in  cases  of  immorality.  With  this  intent,  he 
diminished  the  number  of  church  festivals,  notwithstanding 
the  few  that  still  remained,  and,  in  order  to  prevent  the 
clergy  from  ever  again  becoming  an  obstacle  in  his  way, 
gave  them  a  new  constitution,  by  which  their  collegiate  ties 
were  dissolved,  which  isolated  and  placed  them  under  the 
control  of  a  supreme  consistory  entirely  dependent  upon  the 
crown.  The  lower  clergy  were  also  utterly  demoralized  by 
the  system  of  patronage.  The  candidate  served  for  years  as 
a  tutor,  bore  every  species  of  humiliation,  and  was  finally 
rewarded  by  the  gift  of  a  living  on  the  property  of  his  noble 
patron.     The  new  pastor  was  often  compelled  to  bind  himself 


THE    RISE    OF   PRUSSIA  1361 

to  make  a  transfer  of  the  property  and  privileges  attached 
to  the  living.  As  early  as  1558,  consequently  in  the  earliest 
period  of  the  Reformation,  one  of  the  church  ordinances  in 
Brandenburg  ran  as  follows:  "Some  of  the  noble  patrons  not 
being  in  the  habit  of  keeping  a  pastor,  a  portion  of  the  reve- 
nue of  the  living  must,  in  consideration  thereof,  be  kept  back 
for  them,"  etc.  This  briefly  explains  the  poverty  of  the  ma- 
jority of  the  livings.1  The  custom  was  also  introduced  by 
the  licentious  nobility  of  disposing  of  their  cast-off  mistresses 
together  with  a  living  or  of  attaching  the  gift  to  the  hand  of 
the  widow  or  daughter  of  the  deceased  pastor,  in  order  to 
spare  themselves  the  inconvenience  of  providing  for  her 
maintenance.  In  1746,  the  following  oath  was,  at  Hild- 
burghausen,  imposed  upon  the  clergy  on  their  installation 
into  a  living,  "I  swear  that,  as  a  means  of  gaining  this  ap- 
pointment, a  certain  woman  has  not  been  offered  to  me  in 
marriage."  The  lower  clergy,  notwithstanding  their  op- 
pressed state  and  their  poverty,  have,  however,  generally 
maintained  their  reputation,  and  by  their  piety  and  morality 
frustrated  the  attempts  made  to  reduce  them  to  the  lowest 
depths  of  degradation,  in  the  same  manner  that  the  people 
have  never  been  wholly  perverted  by  the  pernicious  example 
of  their  rulers. — Among  the  Lutheran  states,  Wurtemberg 
was  chiefly  distinguished  for  the  comparative  independence 
of  her  clergy,  who,  reared  from  early  youth  in  monastic 
academies,  and,  lastly,  in  the  college  at  Tubingen,  formed  a 
class,  at  once  influential  on  account  of  its  learning  and  cor- 
porative spirit,  and  on  account  of  the  church  property  it  still 
possessed.  It  was  represented  in  the  diet  by  fourteen  prelates. 
The  dead-letter  spirit,  which  bad  become  prevalent  among 
the  Protestants,  which  had  again  degraded  theology  to  mere 
scholasticism  and  had  not  only  maintained  but  strengthened 
the  ancient  superstition  of  the  crowd,  as,  for  instance,  in 
respect  to  witchcraft,  had  gradually  vanished  as  knowledge 
was  increased  by  the  study  of  the  classics  and  of  natural 

1  Concerning  the  State  of  Religion  in  the  Prussian  States.     Leipzig,  1779. 


1362  THE    HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

philosophy.  Halle  became  for  this  second  period  of  the 
Keformation  what  Wittenberg  had  been  for  the  first.  As 
Luther  formerly  struggled  against  the  monks  and  monkish 
superstition,  Thomasius,  in  1728,  combated  Lutheran  or- 
thodoxy, overthrew  the  belief  in  witchcraft,  and  reintroduced 
the  use  of  the  German  language  into  the  cathedral  service, 
whence  it  had  long  been  expunged.  He  was  succeeded,  in 
1754,  by  the  philosopher,  Wolf,  the  scholar  of  the  great 
Leibnitz,  who  beneficially  enlightened  the  ideas  of  the  theo- 
logical students.  Before  long,  neology  or  the  critical  study 
of  the  Bible,  and  a  positive  divinity,  which  sought  to  unite 
the  Bible  with  philosophy,  prevailed.  The  founders  of  this 
school  were  Michaelis  at  Gottingen,  Semler  at  Halle,  and 
Ernesti  at  Leipzig.  Mosheim  at  Berlin  and  Gellert  at  Leip- 
zig greatly  elevated  the  tone  of  morality.  Spalding1  already 
attempted  to  check  the  erratic  progress  of  enlightenment. 
Voltaire's  lampoons  against  Christianity  had  at  that  period 
spread  over  Germany,  and  Berlin  had  become  the  elysium 
of  free-thinkers.  Besides  Frederick,  Lessing  exercised  great 
influence  on  this  party.  Nicolai,  the  noted  Berlin  book- 
seller, in  his  Universal  German  Library,  began  a  criticism 
upon  all  the  works  published  in  Germany.'  Shortly  before 
this,  Thummel  had,  also  at  Berlin,  brought  forward  the  de- 
graded state  of  the  Protestant  clergy  in  his  excellent  poem 
"Wilhelmina";  Nicolai  continued  the  subject  in  a  romance, 
"Sebaldus  Nothanker, "  in  which  he  gave  a  masterly  descrip- 
tion of  the  state  of  the  Protestant  church  at  that  time  and 
excited  a  feeling  of  hatred  and  contempt  against  the  reign- 
ing consistories,  with  which  the  wearing  of  perukes  was, 
among  other  things,  a  point  of  high  importance.  The  Cath- 
olic clergy  had  disdained  their  adoption;  their  Protestant 
brethren,  however,  opposed  them  in  this  as  in  all  other  mat- 

1  John  Joachim  Spalding,  a  celebrated  Swedish  divine  and  author,  born  1714. 
He  wrote  several  able  works:  the  "Destination  of  Man";  "Religion  the  Most 
Important  Affair  of  Mankind,"  etc.  Died  1804. — Maunder' s  Biographical 
Treasury. 

s  This  work  was  continued  forty  years,  though  Nicolai  ceased  to  edit  it  at 
the  end  of  the  hundred  and  seventh  volume,  in  1792.  —  TVans. 


THE   RISE   OF  PRUSSIA  1363 

ters,  and  no  Lutheran  preacher  consequently  durst  make  his 
appearance  in  public  unperuked.  Heaps  of  controversial 
works  were  published  on  this  subject. — Mauvillon,  Wunsch, 
and,  more  especially,  Paalzow,  wrote  with  great  fanaticism 
against  the  Christian  religion.  Schummel,  at  Breslau, 
warned  against  free-thinking  in  a  romance,  entitled  "The 
Little  Voltaire,"  which  affords  a  deep  insight  into  the  wild 
confusion  of  ideas  at  that  time  prevalent,  and  describes  the 
writings,  secret  societies,  and  intrigues  of  the  free-thinkers. 
Barth,  at  Halle,  by  means  of  his  popular  works,  attempted 
to  spread  among  the  people  the  ideas  at  that  time  convulsing 
the  learned  world,  but  was  with  his  .Rationalism,  which  he 
sought  to  set  up  in  opposition  to  Christianity,  too  shallow 
and  coarse  to  be  attractive. 

Liberty  of  thought  had  degenerated  to  free-thinking,  and, 
like  every  abuse,  speedily  produced  a  reaction.  John  Arndt, 
a  native  of  Anhalt,  published  his  popular  treatise  "On  true 
Christianity,"  in  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century. 
The  learned  divines  were,  notwithstanding,  first  led  to  teach 
a  religion  of  the  heart,  instead  of  inculcating  a  mere  dead- 
letter  belief,  by  Spener,  who,  in  1670,  founded  a  collegium 
pietatis  at  Frankfort  on  the  Maine,  and,  in  1705,  was 
appointed  chaplain  to  the  court  at  Dresden  and  provost  at 
Berlin.  He  replaced  Christian  love  on  her  rightful  throne, 
and  to  him  is  the  Protestant  church  far  more  deeply  indebted 
than  to  the  philosophers  of  the  day,  although  his  fine  and 
comprehensive  ideas  were  carried  but  little  into  practice. 
He  demanded  toleration  of  every  confession  of  faith  and  their 
union  by  Christian  love;  he  rejected  the  sovereignty  assumed 
by  the  state  over  the  church  as  well  as  the  authority  of  the 
consistories  and  faculties,  and  aimed  at  the  emancipation  of 
the  Christian  commonwealth.1  His  followers,  the  Pietists, 
who  have  been  greatly  calumniated,  were  grievously  perse- 
cuted on  account  of  their  extravagant  tendencies.  One  of 
their  number,  Gichtel,  the  proctor  of  the  imperial  chamber, 
founded  the  sect  of  the  Engelsbruder.     Hoburg,  the  Ana- 

1  Vide  Flossbaeh,  Spoiler. 


1364  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

baptist,  Petersen,  the  polygrapher,  the  ill-fated  Kuhlmann. 
who  attempted  to  blend  all  religions  into  one  and  was  burned 
alive  at  Moscow,  in  1689,  and  several  female  seers  drew 
general  attention.  Franke,  the  worthy  founder  of  the  or- 
phan school  at  Halle,  followed  in  Spener's  steps.  Pietism 
took  a  peculiar  form  at  Herrnhut,  where  Count  Zinzendorf 
founded  a  new  church  of  love  and  fraternity,  the  members 
of  which  obeyed  particular  laws  and  wore  a  particular  dress. 
The  gentleness  and  simplicity  of  this  community  strongly 
contrasted  with  the  wild  license  prevalent  in  Saxony  during 
the  reign  of  Augustus,  the  reaction  to  which  had  given  them 
birth.  They  termed  themselves  the  Moravian  Brethren, 
some  remnants  of  the  ancient  Hussites  having  passed  over 
to  them.  The  accession  of  numbers  of  Bohemians  belonging 
to  the  Lichtenstein  estates  drew  a  reclamation  from  the 
Saxon  government.  A  number  of  the  Bohemians  took  ref- 
uge in  Prussia,  and  Zinzendorf,  who  was  banished  from 
Saxony  for  ten  years,  established  himself  in  the  ancient 
Eonneburg  in  the  Wetteraii.  By  his  conference  with  Fred- 
erick William  L,  who  learned  to  esteem  him  highly,  by  his 
connection  with  several  other  religiously  inclined  persons  of 
high  rank,  the  Counts  Reuss  and  Dohna,  the  lords  of  Seidlitz 
in  Silesia,  etc.,  by  his  frequent  travels  and  his  extreme  pru- 
dence, he,  nevertheless,  speedily  succeeded  in  regaining  his 
former  footing.  As  early  as  1733,  he  sent  numbers  of  pilgrims 
into  distant  countries  for  the  purpose  of  propagating  religion 
and  of  converting  the  heathen.  He  twice  visited  the  savages 
of  North  America  as  a  missionary.  The  resolute  piety,  which 
induced  so  many  homely  artificers  to  quit  all  for  the  sake  of 
propagating  the  gospel  amid  the  snows  of  Greenland  and 
Lapland,  or  in  the  burning  climes  of  the  East,  where  they 
succeeded  in  converting  great  numbers,  affords  at  once  a 
touching  and  instructive  lesson.  By  means  of  their  colonies, 
they  formed  important  commercial  connections,  created  a 
market  for  home  produce,  and,  by  the  credit  they  acquired 
by  their  reputation  for  the  strict  uprightness  of  their  deal- 
ings,  gained  immense  riches.     Their  prosperity  put  their 


THE    RISE    OF   PRUSSIA  1365 

opponents  to  the  blush;  they  were  ridiculed  and  esteemed. 
Spangenberg  succeeded  Zinzendorf  as  head  of  the  society, 
whose  members  are  said  to  have  amounted,  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  present  century,  to  half  a  million.  Their 
principal  towns  are  Herrnhut,  Barby,  Neuwied,  and  Ziest 
near  Utrecht;  most  of  those  of  lesser  note  are  distinguished 
by  religious  or  biblical  names,  such  as  Gnadenberg  (Gnade, 
grace),  Gnadenfeld,  Gnadenfrei,  Gnadenhutte,  Gnadenau, 
Friedenthal  (valley  of  peace),  Friedenberg,  etc.,  Bethlehem, 
Nazareth,  Salem,  Bethany,  etc.  The  childlike  simplicity 
and  gentleness  of  the  Herrnhuters  highly  recommended  them 
as  instructors  of  the  female  sex,  and,  even  at  the  present 
day,  families,  not  belonging  to  their  society,  send  their 
daughters  to  be  educated  in  these  asylums  of  innocence  and 
pietv. — Pietism  spread  simultaneously  into  the  Bergland, 
where  it  still  flourishes  in  the  Wupperthal. 

CCXLIII.    The  Liberal  Tendency  of  the  Universities 

In  proportion  as  the  universities  shook  off  the  yoke  im- 
posed by  theological  and  juridical  ignorance  {vide  the  trials 
for  witchcraft),  the  study  of  philosophy,  languages,  history, 
and  the  natural  sciences  gained  ground.  A  wide  range  was 
thus  opened  to  learning,  and  a  spirit  of  liberality  began  to 
prevail,  which,  as  the  first  effect  of  its  cosmopolitan  ten- 
dency, completely  blunted  the  patriotic  feelings  of  the  Ger- 
man, by  rendering  his  country  a  mere  secondary  object  of 
interest  and  inquiry. 

The  struggle  between  modern  ideas  and  ancient  usage 
began  also  in  the  lower  academies.  Rousseau  proposed  the 
fundamental  transformation  of  the  human  race  and  the  crea- 
tion of  an  ideal  people  by  means  of  education.  John  Bernard 
Basedow  attempted  to  put  his  novel  plans  of  education  into 
practice  by  means  of  the  seminary,  known  as  "the  Philan- 
thropinum, "  established  by  him  at  Dessau,  in  which  many  ex- 
cellent teachers  were  formed,  and  by  which  great  good  was 
effected.    Basedow,  nevertheless,  speedily  became  bankrupt, 


1366  THE   HISTORY    OF   GERMANY 

to  the  great  delight  of  the  pedants.  Salzmann,  in  his  acade- 
my of  Schnepfenthal  near  Gotha,  stands  almost  alone  in  his 
plan  for  uniting  physical  exercise  with  mental  improvement 
for  the  attainment  of  practical  ends,  for  rendering  the  stu- 
dent a  useful  citizen,  not  a  mere  bookworm.  JEtochow  pub- 
lished his  celebrated  "Children's  Friend,''  which,  together 
with  Gellert's  Fables,  became  a  favorite  book  for  the  instruc- 
tion of  youth,  and  involuntarily  compelled  teachers  not 
merely  to  inculcate  blind  belief  and  to  enforce  the  study  of 
the  dead  languages,  but  also  to  form  their  pupils'  minds 
by  awakening  the  imagination  and  strengthening  their  moral 
feelings  by  good  examples.  This  literary  attempt,  however, 
speedily  degenerated;  Weisse  published  at  Leipzig  a  large 
"Children's  Friend"  in  twenty-four  volumes,  for  children 
of  good  families,  full  of  unchildlike  absurdities.  Campe, 
by  his  "New  Kobinson  Crusoe,"  '  estranged  the  rising  gen- 
eration in  their  early  childhood  from  their  country,  and 
inspired  them,  perfectly  in  accordance  with  the  spirit  of  the 
times,  with  a  love  of  enterprise  and  a  desire  to  transfer  their 
energies  to  some  foreign  or  far-distant  land.  Funke  taught 
everything  by  rote,  and  smothered  originality  by  assiduously 
teaching  everything,  even  how  to  play.  In  the  popular 
schools,  the  catechism,  and  in  the  learned  academies,  gram- 
matical pedantry,  were,  nevertheless,  still  retained.  The 
best  description  of  the  state  of  the  schools  in  Germany, 
during  the  latter  part  of  the  past  century,  is  to  be  found  in 
Schummel's  "Pointed  Beard."  The  new  plans  of  education 
adopted  by  a  few  private  establishments  and  recommended 
in  the  numerous  new  publications  on  the  subject  more  par- 
ticularly owed  their  gradual  adoption  to  the  tutors,  who,  in 
their  freer  sphere  of  action,  bestowed  their  attention  upon 
the  arts  most  useful  in  practical  life,  and,  out  of  respect  for 
the  parents,  introduced  a  more  humane  treatment  of  the 
children.  The  biography  of  "Felix  Kaskorbi, "  a  tutor  aged 
forty,  graphically  depictures  the  torments  to  which  he  and 

1  Which  was  founded  on  the  popular  work  of  Defoe. — T)-ans. 


THE   RISE    OF   PRUSSIA  1367 

his  colleagues  were  often  exposed  in  their  arduous  and  useful 
calling. 

Private  and  individual  efforts  would,  however,  have  but 
little  availed  without  the  beneficial  reformation  that  took 
place  in  the  public  academies.  In  England,  the  study  of 
the  ancient  classics,  so  well  suited  to  the  stern  character  and 
liberal  spirit  of  the  people,  had  produced  men  noted  for  depth 
of  learning,  by  whom  the  humanities  and  the  spirit  of  an- 
tiquity were  revived.  Their  influence  extended  to  Hanover. 
At  Gottingen,  Heyne  created  a  school,  which  opposed  the 
spirit  to  the  dead  letter,  and,  in  the  study  of  the  classics, 
sought  not  merely  an  acquaintance  with  the  language  but 
also  with  the  ideas  of  ancient  times,  and  Winckelmann 
visited  Italy  in  order  to  furnish  Germany  with  an  account 
of  the  relics  of  antiquity  and  to  inspire  his  countrymen  with 
a  notion  of  their  sublimity  and  beauty.  The  attention  of 
the  student  was  drawn .  to  mythology,  to  ancient  history, 
and  an  acquaintance  with  the  lives  of  the  ancients  led  to  the 
knowledge  of  modern  history  and  geography. 

The  study  of  history  became  universal.  The  history  of 
the  world  succeeded  to  the  records  of  monasteries,  cities,  and 
states.  The  first  manuals  of  universal  history  were,  it  must 
be  confessed,  extremely  dry  and  uninteresting,  while  the  great 
historical  dictionaries  of  Iselin,1  etc.,  and  the  collections  of 
histories  of  all  the  nations  of  the  earth,  either  translated  or 
continued  from  the  English,  in  which  Schlozer3  already  dis- 
covered excessive  sceptical  severity,  were,  on  the  other  hand, 
abundantly  copious.  Ecclesiastical  history  was  also  briefly 
and  clearly  reviewed  by  Spittler,  and  elaborately  continued 
by  Mosheim,  Schrokh,  Plank,  etc.  Arnold3  published  an 
excellent  history  of  the  heretics  and  of  different  sects.  The 
first  geographical  antiquities  are  collected  in  the  Chronicon 
Gottwicense;  the  best  maps  were  given  by  Homann.  The 
systematic  books  of  instruction  in   geography  by  Hubner, 


1  Professor  of  history  and  antiquities  at  Marburg.    Born  at  Basel,  1681.  —  Trans. 
9  Professor  of  philosophy  and  politics  at  Sottingen.     Born  IIM.  —  lbid. 
3  Professor  of  poetry,  history,  and  rhetoric  at  Altorf.     Born  1G27.  —  Ibid. 


1368  THE   HISTORV    OF   GERMANY 

Busching  (to  whom  the  science  of  statistics  is  greatly  in- 
debted), Hassel,  Mannert,  etc.,  were  afterward  continued  on 
a  more  extensive  scale.  The  newspapers  also  increased  in 
importance.  The  Frankfort  Journal  was  commenced  in 
1615  by  Emel,  and  was  followed  by  the  Postavise  and  the 
Fulda  Postreuter.  The  Hamburg  Correspondent  was  first 
published  in  1710.  The  history  of  the  day  was  continued 
from  1617  to  1717,  in  the  Theatrum  Europeum,  commenced 
by  Gottfried;  in  the  Diarium  Europaeum  of  Elisius  (Meyer), 
from  1657  to  1681 ;  Valckenier  het  verwaerd  Europa,  from 
166-1  to  1676,  continued  by  A.  Muller;  Cramer's  History, 
from  1694  to  1698;  Lamberty's  Memoirs,  from  1700  to  1718; 
the  Mercure  Historique,  Bousset,  recueils  des  actes,  from 
1713  to  1748.  The  Frankfort  Eeports  and  the  new  His- 
torical Gallery  opened  at  Nuremberg  between  the  thirty 
and  seven  years'  wars.  The  great  collection  of  treaties 
of  Du  Mont,  from  1731  to  the  year  1800;  the  lesser  one  of 
Schmauss;  that  of  Wenk  up  to  1772;  the  European  Fama, 
up  to  the  seven  years'  war.  Schulz  of  Ascherode,  from  1750 
to  1763;  Count  Herzberg  from  1756  to  1778.  Dohm's  Memo- 
rabilia, from  1778  to  1806;  Gebhard,  recueil  des  traites  de  1792 
to  1795.  Koch  and  Scholl,  histoire  des  traites,  up  to  1815. 
For  German  history  in  particular  much  was  done  first  of 
all  by  the  great  collections  of  the  ancient  unprinted  chroni- 
cles, the  "Scriptores  rerum  Germanicarum,"  made  by  Ec- 
card,  Hahn,  Leibnitz,  Ludwig,  Liinig,  Lundorp,  Meichelbek, 
Menken,  E,auch,  Scharmat,  Schilter,  Schottgen  and  Kreusig, 
Senkenberg,  Sommersberg,  etc. ;  by  the  glossaries  of  Scherz 
and  Haltaus,  by  the  collection  of  old  German  laws  by  Georg- 
isch,  etc. ;  by  the  histories  of  the  empire  by  Struve,  Haber- 
lin,  Putter,  etc.  The  first  voluminous  history  of  Germany 
was  written  by  Schmidt,  an  enlightened  Catholic.  Maskou 
produced  an  excellent  work  on  the  ancient  histories  of  Ger- 
manya  The  best  provincial  histories  were  that  of  Croatia  by 
Valvasor,  of  Carinthia  by  Megiser,  of  Styria  by  Casar,  of 
Bohemia  by  Pelzel,  of  Transylvania  by  Schlozer,  of  Silesia 
by  Klober,  of  Prussia  by  Petri  and  Baczko,  of  Saxony  by 


THE    RISE    OF   PRUSSIA  1369 

Weisse,  of  Anhalt  by  Bekmann,  of  Thuringia  by  Fal ken- 
stein,  of  Brunswick  by  Rehtmeyer,  Spittler,  of  Westphalia 
by  Justus  Moser,  of  Holstein  by  Christiani,  of  Ditmarsch  by 
Dankwerth,  Bolten,  of  Friesland  by  Wiarda,  of  the  circle  of 
the  Saal  by  Dreihaupt,  of  Alsace  by  Schdpflin,  of  Wurtem- 
berg  by  Sattler,  of  Switzerland  by  Tscharner,  John  Muller, 
etc. ;  John  Muller  attempted  a  style  in  imitation  of  Tacitus 
and  introduced  a  bombastical  affected  manner,  which  cre- 
ated more  astonishment  than  admiration.  He,  moreover, 
solely  aimed  at  representing  the  Swiss  as  totally  distinct 
from  the  rest  of  the  great  German  nation,  as  a  petty  nation 
fallen  as  it  were  from  the  skies,  and  by  so  doing  gave  rise  to 
a  number  of  other  provincial  histories,  which  rendered  every 
petty  principality  in  Germany  unconnected  with  the  history 
of  the  empire,  and  described  them  as  having  been  eternally 
independent  and  isolated.  Provincial  feuds  and  neighborly 
hatred  were  by  this  means  fed. — Pollnitz,  Wackerbarth, 
Frederick  the  Great,  his  sister,  the  Margravine  of  Baireuth, 
Dohm,  Gortz,  Schmettau,  and  Schulenburg  wrote  their  me- 
moirs.— There  were  also  numerous  histories  of  towns,  as,  for 
instance,  that  of  Spires  by  Lehmann,  of  Dantzig  by  Curiken, 
of  Augsburg  by  Stetten,  of  Ratisbon  by  Gemeiner,  of  Mag- 
deburg by  Rathmann,  of  Strasburg  by  Friese,  of  Berlin  by 
an  anonymous  author,  published  1792,  of  Breslau  by  Klose. 
The  Dutch  took  the  lead  in  political  science.  As  early  as 
1638,  Althausen  laid  the  "majestas  populi"  down  as  a  princi- 
ple, and  Hugo  Grotius  laid  the  first  foundation  to  the  law  of 
nations.  In  Lutheran  and  Catholic  Germany,  on  the  other 
hand,  merely  "works  on  the  Art  of  Government,"  "Mirrors 
of  Honor,"  etc.,  were  published,  in  which  the  adulation 
prevalent  in  France  was  zealously  emulated,  and  the  whole 
of  ancient  Olympus  was  plundered  for  the  purpose  of  adorn- 
ing each  sacred  allonge-peruke  with  emblems  and  divine  at- 
tributes. The  jealousy  between  the  houses  of  Hohenzollern 
and  Habsburg,  nevertheless,  permitted  Pufendorf,  a  Bran- 
denburg privy-councillor,  to  commence  a  tolerably  liberal 
criticism  on  the  German  constitution,  in  which  he  was  speed- 


1370  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

ily  imitated  by  the  Prussians,  Cocceji  and  Gundling.  J.  J. 
Moser  took  a  still  more  independent  view  of  the  reigning 
political  evils  in  Germany  and  Schlozer  was,  shortly  anterior 
to  the  French  devolution,  equally  liberal  in  his  state-papers. 
The  learned  Putter  at  Gottingen  was  more  a  historical  than 
a  political  writer,  and,  generally  speaking,  the  literature  of 
the  day  rarely  touched  upon  the  political  misfortunes  of  Ger- 
many. In  proportion  as  the  empire  lost  one  province  after 
another  were  the  people  gradually  deprived  of  their  ancient 
privileges,  still  no  one  spoke,  and  the  additional  burdens  on 
the  peasantry,  the  increased  taxation,  the  sale  of  men  for 
service  in  the  Indies,  the  inactivity  of  the  provincial  Estates, 
etc. ,  excited  as  little  discussion  as  the  impudent  seizure  of 
Strasburg. — Heineccius  and  Bohmer,  in  Austria,  Sonnenfels, 
who  aided  Joseph  II.  in  his  reforms,  were  distinguished  pro- 
fessors of  jurisprudence. 

The  study  of  mathematics  was  greatly  promoted  by  Leib- 
nitz, the  inventor  of  differential  calculus,  and  was  carried  to 
higher  perfection  by  Lambert  of  Alsace,  by  the  family  of 
Bernouilli  of  Basel,  Euler,  etc.  The  Germans  made  great 
discoveries  in  astronomy.  Scheiner  (1650)  discovered  the 
spots  in  the  sun;  Hevel  (1687)  and  Dorfel  found  out  the 
paths  of  the  comets;  Eimmart  of  Nuremberg  measured 
several  of  the  fixed  stars.  Herschel,  born  in  1740,  died 
in  1822,  discovered,  with  his  giant  telescope  in  England, 
in  1781,  the  planet  Uranus,  nebulous  stars,  planetary  neb- 
ulae, etc.  Huygens  improved  the  telescope,  Lowenhoek  and 
Hontsoecker  the  microscope  (in  Holland).  Lieberkuhn  of 
Breslau  invented  the  solar  microscope;  Tschirnhausen,  burn- 
ing-glasses; Snell  discovered  the  laws  of  refraction.  The 
study  of  physics  was  greatly  promoted  by  Otto  von  Gue- 
ricke,  burgomaster  of  Magdeburg,  1686,  the  inventor  of 
the  air-pump  and  of  the  electrifying  machine;  by  Sturm, 
1703,  the  founder  of  experimental  physics;  by  Fahren- 
heit, who,  in  1714,  invented  the  thermometer;  by  Kircher, 
the  inventor  of  the  speaking  trumpet;  by  Hausen,  Wilke, 
Cunaus,  Muschenbroek,  who  improved  the  electrifying  ma 


THE   RISE   OF   PRUSSIA  1371 

chine.  Among  the  chemists,  before  whose  science  alchemy- 
fled,  Glauber,  who  gave  his  name  to  a  celebrated  salt,  Becher, 
Stahl,  Brand,  the  discoverer  of  phosphorus,  and  Gmelin, 
merit  particular  mention.  Werner  acquired  great  note  as 
a  mineralogist  in  Saxon  Freiburg  at  the  close  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century.  Botany  was  industriously  studied  by  Haller 
of  Switzerland,  Volckamer  of  Nuremberg,  etc. ;  Rumpf's 
"Herbarium  Amboinense"  contains  the  most  valuable  bo- 
tanical collection  of  this  period.  Klein,  the  noted  travellers 
Pallas,  Blumenbach,  and  Bechstein,  were  celebrated  as  zo- 
ologists. The  first  great  physiological  periodical  works  were 
the  curious  Medic.  Phys.  Ephemeridae,  written  in  Latin,  in 
which  Christian  Mentzel,  the  celebrated  linguist  and  nat- 
uralist, private  physician  to  the  great  elector,  diligently  re- 
corded his  observations;  and  the  "Breslau  Collections." 

Geography  and  natural  history  were  greatly  promoted  by 
travels  undertaken  for  scientific  purposes.  Reinhold  and 
George  Forster  accompanied  Cook  round  the  world  in 
1772.  The  noted  traveller,  Kampfer,  went  with  the  Dutch 
to  Japan  in  1716.  Montanus,  Neuhof,  etc.,  wrote  accounts 
of  the  Dutch  embassies  to  China,  whence  much  informa- 
tion was  also  sent  by  the  Jesuits,'  among  whom,  Tieffen- 
thaler,  the  Tyrolese,  gained  great  fame  at  the  commence- 
ment of  the  eighteenth  century  by  being  the  first,  and,  up 
to  the  present  period,  the  only  European  who  travelled  over- 
land from  China  to  India,  and  who  first  saw  the  Dawalagiri, 
the  highest  mountain  in  the  world.  Carsten  Niebuhr  was 
the  most  celebrated  among  the  travellers  in  Persia  and 
Arabia;  Pallas  and  Gmelin  explored  Siberia.  Samuel  The- 
ophilus  Gmelin,  the  noted  naturalist,  nephew  to  the  above- 
mentioned  botanist  and  geographer,  travelled  for  the  empress 
Catherine  II.  of  Russia.  While  travelling,  in  1774,  in  Tar- 
tary,  he  was  thrown  into  prison  by  one  of  the  chiefs,  who 
demanded   thirty  thousand   rubles   for   his  ransom,   which 


1  Jesuits  have  continually  distinguished  themselves  at  Peking  as  Mandarins, 
guardians  of  the  observatory  aud  presidents  of  an  academy  of  sciences,  as,  for 
instance,  Goggeisl,  1771,  and  again,  in  1780,  Father  llallerstein  of  Swabia. 


1372  THE   HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

Catherine  refused  and  he  died  in  prison.     Egede  and  Kranz, 
Herrnhut  missionaries,  have  given  an  account  of  icy  Green- 
land, Dobrizhofer,  the  Jesuit,  another  of  torrid  Paraguay,  etc. 
In  pharmacology  the  Germans  have  done  more  than  any 
other  nation;  after  them,  the  Dutch.     Helmont,  although 
not  free  from  the  alchemical  prejudices  of  his  age,  did  much 
good  by  his  dietary  method,  all  diseases,  according  to  him, 
proceeding  from   the   stomach.     Hermann   Boerhaave,   the 
most  eminent  physician  of  his  time,  encouraged  by  the  an- 
atomical discoveries  of  Lowenhoek  and  Ruysch,  carefully 
investigated  the  internal  formation  of  the  human  body  in 
search  of  the  primary  causes  of  diseases,  but  was  led  astray 
by  the  mechanical  notion  that  all  diseases  originated  in  the 
improper  circulation  or  diminution  of  the   humors  of  the 
body.1     In  Germany  proper,  medicine  was  not  brought  to 
any  degree  of  perfection  until  a  later  period.     Frederick 
Hoffman,  in  pursuance  of  the  system  of  Leibnitz,  ascribed 
all  diseases  to  motion  and  treated  them  simply  as  cramps. 
His  suggestions  greatly  advanced  the  science  of  pathology 
Stahl,    the   Pietist,    opposed    this   mechanical    theory   and 
founded  a  mystical   system,   which  recognized  the  soul  as 
forming  the  strength  of  the  body,  the  blood  as  the  eternal 
foe  of  the  divine  power  inherent  in  man,  and  therefore  rec- 
ommended its  constant  restriction  and  purification  by  means 
of  bleeding.     Albert  von   Haller,  the  poet  and  naturalist, 
brought  forward  the  system  of  nervous  pathology,  which 
was   carried   still  further   by  Christopher   Louis   Hoffman, 
who  ascribed  all  diseases  to  the  dissolution  of  the  solids  by 
the  corruption  of  the  humors.     Stoll,  the  empiric,  opposed 
the  whole  of  these  theories,  and  was  the  first  who  noted  the 
impossibility  of  accounting  for  the  diseases  by  which  nations 
were  visited  in  various  climes  and  at  various  periods;  he, 
nevertheless,  chiefly  considered  the  gall  bladder  as  the  seat 
of  infection,  which  he  sought  to  palliate  by  the  use  of  emet- 

1  Boerhaave's  numerous  works  are,  nevertheless,  still  regarded  as  text  books 
by  the  profession ;  his  knowledge  as  an  anatomist,  chemist,  and  botanist,  as  well 
as  of  the  causes,  nature,  and  treatment  of  diseases,  was  unrivalled. — Trans. 


THE   RISE   OF   PRUSSIA  1373 

ics.  Reil  practiced  a  more  refined  empiricism. — The  discov- 
ery of  animal  magnetism  by  Mesmer,  in  1775,  was  an  im- 
portant one,  not  only  in  medicine,  but  more  particularly  in 
psychology.  It  was  first  studied  as  a  science  by  John  Fred- 
erick Gmelin,  professor  of  chemistry  and  natural  history  at 
Gottingen,  and  has  since  engaged  the  attention  of  numerous 
physicians  and  psychologists.  A  miraculous  property  has 
been  attributed  to  this  discovery,  which  is  certainly  one  of 
the  most  extraordinary  ever  made  in  inventive  Germany. 
Sommering  was  the  most  eminent  of  the  German  anato- 
mists. Gall  gained  a  transient  fame  by  his  novel  phrenolog- 
ical ideas,  and  Lavater  of  Zurich  by  his  science  of  physiog- 
nomy. The  belief  in  apparitions  was  again  spread  through- 
out the  Protestant  world  by  this  pious  enthusiast  and  by 
Jung  Stilling,  while  Father  Gassner,  at  the  same  time, 
about  1770,  inspired  the  Catholic  population  of  Upper  Swa- 
bia  with  terror  by  his  exorcism. 

Philosophy  gave,  however,  at  that  period,  the  tone  to 
learning.  The  eighteenth  century  was  termed  the  age  of 
philosophy,  being  that  in  which  the  French  began  in  their 
Encyclopedia  to  regard  all  human  knowledge  in  an  inde- 
pendent point  of  view,  neither  ecclesiastical  nor  Christian. 
The  Germans,  although  borrowing  their  frivolous  mock- 
enlightenment  from  France,  imitated  the  English  in  the 
serious  study  of  philosophy  and  philology.  Under  the  pro- 
tection of  the  king  of  England,  the  Baron  von  Leibnitz,  the 
celebrated  mathematician  and  philosopher,  shone  at  Han- 
over, like  Albertus  Magnus,  in  every  branch  of  learning. 
His  system  was  a  union  of  the  Christian  mysticism  of  former 
times  and  of  the  scholastic  scientific  modern  philosophy,  the 
result  of  the  study  of  mathematics  and  of  the  classics.  Ac- 
cording to  him,  an  infinite  number  of  worlds  are  possible  in 
the  Divine  comprehension;  but,  of  all  possible  ones,  God  has 
chosen  and  formed  the  best.  Each  being  is  intended  to  at- 
tain the  highest  degree  of  happiness  of  which  it  is  capable, 
and  is  to  contribute,  as  a  part,  to  the  perfection  of  the  whole 
The  gradual  deviation  of  philosophy  from  Christianity  and 


1374  THE    HISTORY   OF   GERMANY 

the  increasing  similarity  between  it  and  heathenism  were  in 
accordance  with  the  spirit  of  the  age.  In  1677,  Spinosa,  the 
Dutch  Jew,  reproduced,  with  subtle  wit,  the  old  doctrine  of 
the  mystic,  Valentine  Weigel,  concerning  the  original  con- 
tradictions apparent  in  the  world,  which  he  explained,  not 
by  a  Christian  idea  of  love,  but  by  a  mathematical  solution. ' 
Leibnitz  had  numerous  followers,  among  whom,  Bilfinger 
attempted  by  pure  mathematical  reasoning,  unaided  by  rev- 
elation, to  explain  its  most  inexplicable  secret,  the  origin  of 
evil,  and  Wolf  converted  his  master's  theories  into  a  con- 
venient scholastic  system,  completely  devoid  of  mysticism 
and  merely  retaining  the  ideas  consonant  with  the  doctrine 
of  common  Eationalism.  He  gained  immense  fame  by  his 
opposition  to  the  orthodox  theologians.  Mathematical  rea- 
soning was  certainly  useful  for  the  proper  arrangement  of 
ideas,  but  was  essentially  devoid  of  purport.  In  England, 
it  led  to  mere  scepticism,  to  a  system  of  doubt  and  negation, 
whence,  instead  of  returning  to  the  study  of  theology,  the 
English  philosophers  turned  to  a  zealous  research  in  psychol- 
ogy, in  which  they  were  imitated  by  the  Germans,  Platner, 
Eeimarus,  Mendelssohn,  the  physician  Zimmermann,  etc. ;  all 
of  whom  were  surpassed  by  Kant  in  1804,  at  Konigsberg, 
in  his  "Critical  Inquiry  into  the  Nature  of  Pure  Keason," 
which  contains  a  critical  analysis  of  every  mental  faculty. 
His  influence  over  his  fellow  countrymen  was  unlimited, 
owing  to  his  placing  reason  above  all  else,  while  he,  at  the 
same  time,  strongly  marked  the  moral  necessities  and  duties 
of  man,  and  paid  homage  to  the  enlightenment,  then  in  gen- 
eral vogue,  and  to  moral  sobriety,  the  permanent  national 
characteristic  of  the  German. 

1  Spinosa  renounced  the  Jewish  religion  for  that  of  Calvin.  He  afterward 
became  a  Mennonist,  and  at  last  fell  into  the  most  dangerous  scepticism,  if  not 
downright  atheism. — Trans. 

END   OF   VOLUME   THREE 


89 
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